Feral Bees

The fellow who mows our lawn, Red, tald us he knew of several places in Rockingham County where there were feral bees. I finally got around to going and seeing what he was talking about.



The first place he guided me two was an old log cabin on land he leases for hunting. The cabin is pretty much intact, but the mud has come out from between the timbers, which is where the bees leave and enter. The challenge with getting bees out of this cabin is that they have nested in the ceiling. The cabin is old and can't be occupied, but the owners reportedly would want things restored to its current state. That would mean taking down all the tongue and groove slats that make up the ceiling to find the queen and take down comb. I imagine it will be quite a job. I'm debating if this one will be worth it.

The second old cabin is about to fall down. At least the area where the bees have housed themselves. This colony would be easier to extract. The boards are vertical and the entrance is pretty clearly marked. There would be no attempt to have to restore anything. There would be brush to take out of the way, but that wouldn't be all that bad to get rid of.

If you look closely at the photo, you can see where the bees have applied a long line of propelis up and down one crack. The entrance is in there somewhere.

Come spring, we will take a second look at both hives. In the meantime, I have to figure out where to put them if I get them. The shadows are already covering the spot east of the greenhouse. I want a spot that will get sun early in the season. I will have to watch the area and see how if fares in February and March.

Virgin Queen

I am not referring to Elizabeth.

Doug Shaw and I gave a beekeeping workshop to anyone at church who wanted to come. One family (another Doug) came. We had stacked examples of everything, equipment and tools, in the outdoor place we call "the grove." We did our brief explanations, Doug doing most of the explaining. Then, because we had so few there, we went to the apiary at Clarence's house, which is right next to the church. The picture is of Doug (left) and Doug (right) opening up Doug's hive. Doug's only goal was to get his feeders out, which was successful. The other Doug also got to wear a bee suit and take a good look and experience the art of smoking the hive. All was well as far as we could tell.

However, all was not well in my hive -- again. My hive, which had been strong earlier, was now week. Honey had disappeared; bees had disappeared. Most distressing, there was absolutely no brood. The new queen had clearly been released; her cage was empty. However, there was just no brood whatsoever. Not a single capped cell, not a single pupa or larva or egg. I think when we requeened, we got a virgin. I didn't see her, but the bees didn't act as if they were queenless. So, I presume she is there.

Just in case, I talked Doug into swapping a frame from his hive. We picked out a frame that had very young brood on it. If mine need a queen, they should be able to create an emergency queen. If not, I just hope they can survive until spring with what they have. I fed them with sugar water I had stored at Clarence's place earlier.

Weeding

I spent 10 minutes in the evening yesterday using a chop stick to clean out weeds that had sprouted between the Long Red Florence onions and garlic (all 32 of which have now sprouted!). I had to be judicious because there are seeds that have not yet sprouted. But where it was clear to do so, I would wiggle the chop stick between the plants and uproot the weed seedlings. I find the chop stick is actually a decent tool for doing this.

I spent the morning cleaning out the garden area. The walkways had become choked with dead grasses and marigold vines. My goals are to finally finish the last of the three raised beds and to clean out the strawberry beds that have become overrun with things other than strawberries.

I used my bow rake to pretty good advantage and got a bit of a workout to boot. The paths are at least now walkable. Every year, in fact, practically every month, I make a deeply considered commitment to fight grass and weeds. Then, they sneak up on me. Despite the fact that Monsanto is known to just about everyone as the evil empire, I understand why Round-up is popular.

Even though marigold vines are pernicious, when you pull them out, they come. At least today they came without also pulling out the strawberries. The other benefit is that other weeds did not seem to get a start there. Still, I should be more diligent in the future and just keep them down from the start.

Garlic and Onions 2

This is just a progress update. I had thought I had a 90% germination rate for the onion seed I planted. I have been going through both beds this week, replanting seeds in spots where I saw no evidence of the original seed sprouting. I think my original germination rate was less than that; probably 75% to 80%. On the other hand, the weed germination rate must be much higher than that. I am trying to eliminate the weeds as I go along, but they are very small. I can't grab them with my fingers because they are so small, so I have been using the chop stick to disturb the soil. I think I will have a lot of weeding to do in the next weeks.

In addition to the 2 garlic plants from the fridge, 27 of the Seed Savers Exchange garlic have now sprouted. That is of 30 that were planted. They are coming up slowly. I am hoping to get 100% germination. I will add a clove or two from the fridge if I don't get the remainder to sprout in a week.

Hoops

After the disaster that befell my cold frames last winter when it snowed, I vowed to find a solution.

I found it in a conduit bender that I ordered during the summer. Today was the day to install the new frames; hoops of aluminum that will eventually be covered with the 6 mil plastic I created for the cold frames last winter. It was a beautiful day to be outside; an added bonus.

The conduit bender was designed to be easy to use and, with just a bit of practice, Doug Shaw and I developed a system for getting the conduit nicely shaped. It turned out that it really was a two-person job. When we tried it alone, all the frames had a skew to them.

From the time we left to buy the conduit and attaching hardware to the time we were finished with four beds (20 pipes, 5 per bed), it took less than three hours. That is considerably quicker than it took when I made the frames out of plywood. And, based on my experience grabbing onto the frame to help me get up off my knees, these frames will be sturdy and will be able to withstand wind and snow.

In our first attempt at installation we had the frames arc 34 inches above the top board of the bed. When we put the plastic on, the bed wasn't covered completely. So we lowered the arc of the frame over the next bed to 29 inches. This time the plastic basically fit, with not much extra on either end or on the sides. Thinking about it, given the diameter of the hoop at 4' 3.5", that still makes the frame slightly liptokurtic (a bit elongated on the top). If it were perfectly round, the hoop should be only 25.75" above the bed. But that's OK because I want as much room for the plants to grow as possible.


We covered four frames. The two with onions and garlic and the two with brassicas. The plastic will go on when the temperature drops and we get a frost or freeze warning.

Brassican Geometry

I got the other tomato bed cleaned out so I could plant Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. I got the Brussels sprouts at the Kernersville Feed & Seed. I would have purchased cauliflower there, but they don't sell them. I couldn't find them at Lowes or the farmers market either. But a couple of friends had told me that there was a place in Walkertown, Webster Brothers, that would carry them. I had never been to the Brothers' place and had only vague directions. However, it just happened last Friday that I had an eye appointment in Walkertown, so I kept my eyes peeled. Just as I turned into the optometrist's, I saw them a bit further down the road. Webster Brothers is a unique place. I hope they stay in business a long time. They did have cauliflower.

I planted this morning. My concern was that, like last year, I was going to somewhat crowd the bed. I had 9 Brussels sprouts and 8 cauliflower. Last year I planted 2 packs of 9 in a bed. It was a little crowded but things grew pretty well. I needed a geometric design for the planting to work. I actually used the Pythagorean theorem to figure out spacing. (All the plants was 18" between them.) I ended up with the 8 cauliflower on the outside ends and all the other places taken by Brussels sprouts.

This bed was the bed that had a lot of blossom rot among the tomatoes this year. I figured I would get a head start on increasing calcium and I put about 30-35 lbs. of dolomitic limestone in with the fertilizer as I prepared the bed. (I plan on planting tomatoes in this bed again in the spring.) I put bt on all the leaves of plants in this bed and in the broccoli bed.

Planting Broccoli

I transplanted broccoli seedlings I had bought at the Feed & Seed. I had gone to the Farmer's Market, but they had none. I guess it doesn't really matter. (I forgot that I had my own seed until it was too late to start them on my own.


Last year, I put 18 plants into my 4' x 12' bed. They produced but they were crowded. This year, I put in 9 plants, spacing them 2' apart down the rows with the rows 18" apart. I don't feel the need to crowd. That left three 2' x 2' squares. I planted beet, turnip, and carrot in these squares.

I added about 15 lbs. of dolomitic limestone and some 10-10-10 fertilizer to this bed. I used a different kind of cutworm protecting collar around the plants this time. I used some index tabs left over from a printing job gone bad at the office. They actually seem a little weak, and I'm rethinking them.

Signs of Lilly Life

The lilly family is showing signs of life. The two garlic cloves planted from the fridge are up and growing. I wish I could say the same for the cloves from the Seed Savers Exchange. However, to be fair, they note on the documentation they send that it may take four weeks before anything happens. I'm not going anywhere and nothing else is competing for their space right now. If worse comes to worse, I have more cloves in the fridge.


What is even better from my perspective is the evidence of life among the Long Red Florence onions. The seeds have sprouted. I haven't counted the rate of germination, but I estimate it above 90%. The critters have evidently had little impact, with some of the seed sprouting in the midst of the critters burrow.

I plan to follow through in the next few days and plant additional seed in the blank spaces. Perhaps I should actually do a count of seeds that didn't sprout; then I would know.

The challenge I will have now will be weeds. The bed with the garlic and Long Red Florence seems to have a lot of weeds sprouting. Weeding is easy when the plants are small, but does require diligence; the place where most of us fall down. I think a daily morning ritual is called for.

I have to comment about the weather. We had a two-day storm that must have dumped at least 6 inches of rain. I'm sure that will help with all sorts of things, including the sprouting of seeds. Before the storm, I watered daily, but it isn't the same. A good drenching rain soaks the bed all the way through.