[weirdmarsupial]

First attempt at making comb cassettes! Just made the jig last night, so I've only got one so far. I'll be making more after work, should be able to get enough to fill a frame. They should, if my measurements are correct, wedge neatly into a frame, but I won't know until I have enough to try.

I was going to cut the strips down myself, but then I had a thought and got some basket weaving strips to use instead. They're made of rattan, which is actually a palm wood, and so far I'm finding it very easy to work with. I'll update in the next couple days with a frame of these and pictures of the jig if people want to see it.

[thackeroy]

My second little sausage of yarn I spun with my drop spindle. Still getting the hang of it.

[corrodedparadox]

Pass the detritus

[weirdmarsupial]

This is very important and you all need to see it right now

[teaboot]

SHIMP

[shedoescalcforfunsies]

Guess what. I actually did it.

[weirdmarsupial]

Heck yeah!! This is so cool to see, it turned out great!

[weirdmarsupial]

Bee update! Looking good! Now that we're back to two hives I'm gonna have to start calling them their names again. Green is starting to work on their honey super, and have plenty of brood going in their lower boxes.

Blue is also doing well, the new queen is laying nicely. I saw brood in all stages, including a bit of capped brood and plenty of eggs. I need to order some mite treatment and a paint marker to mark her, but otherwise I'm happy with both hives and just need to let them keep doing their thing.

[weirdmarsupial]

Made bread. Started yesterday, cold proofed in the fridge overnight, and baked today after lunch. Apple fritter focaccia and some nice crusty loaves to have with Italian beef tonight

Haven't tasted the loaves yet of course, but the focaccia is so fricking good. I saw somebody make some on some other social media and have been thinking about it for weeks. Didn't use a specific recipe for it, just made the focaccia I normally make, plus some honey and cinnamon in the dough and some apples mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg, etc put on before baking, and a bit of icing afterwards.

[weirdmarsupial]

Gorgeous green lacewing I found earlier

[weirdmarsupial]

Redoing an aquarium and this anubias that I've had for years now goes from my fingertips to my elbow. She'd be a few inches bigger even, but a couple smaller pieces have broken off.

[weirdmarsupial]

Favorite kind of Beehive if you have one? And/or Beekeeper online

Both of my hives are vertical langstroth hives, which is kind of the 'standard' beehive these days, which I do like, but I'd like at some point to try a horizontal hive of some kind. Out of my two hives, though, I much prefer the eight frame to the ten frame. The boxes are a bit lighter and feel a lot less bulky to lift and move. And tbh I've had a lot better luck with my bees in the eight frame, but who can say if the box size is what's made a difference.

[fujokafka]

we need to bring back old school tumblr communication and im so serious. sending an ask to a mutual just to say hello. seeing three different asks in your inbox all asking how your dentist appointment went. seeing a post you think one of your mutuals would enjoy and tagging them/sending it to them in the dms. nowadays its just silently liking a post or (if youre feeling extreme) replying under posts. WHAT HAPPENED TO US!! we used to be a proper community!!!! #LetsBringWhimsyBack

[andthelaw]

reblog if you want ppl to send you random lil' asks

[weirdmarsupial]

Opinions? I'm making a skirt for ren faires and such, and this green cotton fabric is going to be the main skirt material. But I don't have enough/I don't think it has enough structure to do the waistband bits. This brown linen is the only fabric I have that goes decently enough with it imo, so I'm thinking either use this or go buy another fabric maybe in a slightly darker but complimentary green? Open to other suggestions, too.

[weirdmarsupial]

Just found out it's world bee day, so here's the new queen of blue hive. She's so pretty!! No eggs yet when I checked on them, but she hadn't been out very long yet. I expect I'll see some when I'm out there this weekend.

[weirdmarsupial]

I'd like some deets on the leg wraps, what fibre are you using? What yarn/thread weight? What length? Info please and thank you~

For sure! I don't know all the specifics on ideal dimensions, weight, etc, I pretty much just asked my brother what he needed and let him dig through my yarn stash, and did a quick google search to double check his information. These should end up being about 13ft long each, I think 12 or so is more normal, but he got them long legs. I'm using mostly lion brand fisherman's wool yarn, worsted weight, as well as several other yarns of roughly the same weight, also mostly wool. Otherwise they're pretty basic, just plainweave on my rigid heddle loom, 8 tpi, they'll be about 3.5in wide. I don't know how the ends will be finished yet, but I intend to update once they're done and have been tried on.

[weirdmarsupial]

New project on the loom, leg wraps for my brother. Mostly brown/gray wool, but striped through with some rainbow colors, which will also show up here and there in the weft. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple, but the green and purple don't really stand out, even in better light. My loom wouldn't be able to handle the length of warp needed to make both of them, so they're actually being woven side by side.

And what would weaving be without a dubiously helpful assistant?

[weirdmarsupial]

New queen is in!! This one was packed differently than the others I've gotten. Still in the little woodblock cage like normal, but then that was taped inside a deli container with a little wet sponge and some marshmallows. And instead of 4-5 attendants in with her, there were probably a couple dozen loose in the deli container. A good setup to keep dead attendants from blocking the queen's escape, provide her with more attendants, and give them a supply of food and water.

It is very windy and a bit rainy today, so I would've preferred to wait until tomorrow to put her in the hive, but it's supposed to be worse all weekend. There was nothing to keep the attendants separate from the bees already in the hive, so I was a little worried they'd get attacked. I held the container up to the hive for a few minutes to see if there'd be any aggression, but everyone seemed chill, so I opened the container to let them get a better sniff of each other. A couple attendants did get attacked initially, but were let go, and once the hive figured out there was a queen in there, they were pretty amenable to the newcomers. A bunch of bees started making their way over, some were fanning to spread queen pheromones already. I didn't see any more aggressive behavior, so I went ahead and wedged the queen cage between a couple frames. Kept an eye on them for a couple more minutes and everything was looking good, so I closed the hive up.

I think they're gonna be fine, but I won't won't know for sure until I check in a few days that she's been released and again a while after that to make sure she's laying well and mark her. I won't say we're back at two hives quite yet, but it's looking good. Also peep my lovely orange-handled hive tool, it's so pretty

[weirdmarsupial]

Split the bees yesterday! Took three frames of emerging brood/brood,nurse bees, and a few frames of unfinished honey from last year. Should be a good start for them, and I'm picking up and installing a queen after work.

[weirdmarsupial]

Did a bee inspection yesterday, and 👀

They have had an explosion of progress this past week! They've gone from having just started on their second box to having it over half filled with brood and nectar. I'm going back in the next couple days to split some off for the second hive and put on a honey super, just waiting to hear back about buying a queen. Here's a picture from this last inspection

You can see several drones hanging around, and if you look you can find the queen, she's marked with a blue dot