Another cold snap

Pull those knickers up girls, it's cold.

1-19-14

Made time after all to visit other two vineyard hives. All seems good, however a little more moisture content apparent. Supplemental feeding was completed.

1-19-14

Had a busy day today and was only able to make it out to the orchard hives to give  a supplemental feeding. Both hives with this weather today were very active. Happy to see that.

1-12-14 Feeding

Took advantage of the warm temps (53° at time of feeding) and visited bees to feed and check after a couple weeks of very cold temps. All hives are still living, though numbers in a couple of them are certainly down. Fed them capping a mixed with honey and powdered sugar. Alex still tentative after his summer sting to the cheek did help and I was glad to have him along carrying tools and such.

Pizza Dough Recipe with Honey!

Wolfgang Puck is famous for a lot of great food, but if you had to choose the one item for which he would be most well known, it would be his delicious pizzas. Wolfgang Puck changed the way Americans looked at the pizza forever. This is his signature pizza dough recipe. 

Makes Enough Dough for 4 Small Pizzas

Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 27 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 package dry active yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
• 3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
• toppings of your choice

Preparation:

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and honey in 1/4 cup of the warm water. In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour and the salt. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and the remaining 3/4 cup of water and mix on low speed until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl and clusters around the dough hook, about 5 minutes. 

(The pizza dough can also be made in a food processor. Dissolve the yeast as above. Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse once or twice, add the remaining ingredients, and process until the dough begins to form a ball.) 

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead by hand 2 or 3 minutes longer. The dough should be smooth and firm. Cover the dough with a clean, damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about 30 minutes. (When ready, the dough will stretch as it is lightly pulled.) 

Place a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500º F. Divide the dough into 4 balls, about 6 ounces each. Work each ball by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Then on a smooth, unfloured surface, roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm, about 1 minute. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes. At this point, the balls can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days. 

To prepare each pizza, dip the ball of dough into flour, shake off the excess flour, place the dough on a clean, lightly floured surface, and start to stretch the dough. Press down on the center, spreading the dough into an 8-inch circle, with outer border a little thicker than the inner circle. If you find this difficult to do, use a small rolling pin to roll out the dough. Lightly brush the inner circle of the dough with oil and arrange the toppings of your choice over the inner circle. 

Using a lightly floured baker’s peel or a rimless flat baking tray, slide the pizza onto the baking stone and bake until the pizza crust is nicely browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Remember that the oven is very hot and be careful as you place the pizza into and out of the oven. Transfer the pizza to a firm surface and cut into slices with a pizza cutter or very sharp knife. Serve immediately.

Brrrrrrr!

This morning Jackson and visited the hives early to wrap them with rolled insulation. After multiple days of -windchills this winter the upcoming -30 - -40 forecasts I didn't want to submit them without any protection. It was -10 windchill when we visited. We heard two hives clearly buzzing keeping their heat up. Hope it helps!

Stages of honeybee

Guess what?

Last year our Loess Hills Honey Company honeybees visited 750 million blooms to get our amount of honey we harvested. Going for a cool billion next year!

Visit on 12-26-13

With the holidays I was delayed in getting this entry in. Visited orchard hives to supplement with crystalized honey, perfect for their needs. Both hives were active as it was 60 degrees when I opened top boards. Good numbers as well. They still had left over feed patties but they had been working on them. Today it's currently 3 degrees and the next week looks brutally cold, so hoping for the best with all hives. Getting ready to add more colonies for spring.