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(photo: Vincent Ramos/wikipedia)
It has been exactly one year since my first post on bees.
Here are some of the more interesting experiences of the hobby in that year.
Weather
Weather continues to be a challenge. 2011 beat the RECORD precipitation by 10½ inches! Rain washes pollen off the flowers and dilutes nectar, so the girls have to work a lot harder to feed their babies (bee bread made from pollen) and make honey from nectar. Normally nectar water content would have to be reduced by about 80%, mostly by bees fanning their wings. You can imagine how much more exhausting a worker’s short life is when the nectar is more dilute than normal.
This past winter was mild, about tied for warmest on record. My girls had plenty of food, which started them off this season already ahead of schedule. Normally, the queen would start laying again in February, at which point the hive temperature (meaning the temperature around the queen and the brood) must be kept in the 90s, up from the 50s when there is no brood. Had the temperature turned very cold around February, there might have been a problem, but it didn’t so survival was excellent.
A couple of weeks ago, owing to continued warmer-than-normal temperatures, the whole cycle was about a month or more ahead of schedule. In the last two weeks, though, overnight lows have been chilly so swarming/splitting has been delayed.
Reviewing the Royal Lineage
When I acquired my first hive in June 2009, I decided to name my queens after Victoria, as she had a lot of children and grandchildren that I could name future generations of bee queens after. What I failed to anticipate was that a human generation lasts a couple of decades, whereas a bee generation lasts a year. My first naming scheme, then, has already run its productive course.
My bee Queen Victoria (human one was actually christened Alexandrina Victoria) swarmed in early May 2010, before Chris had a chance to split the hive. Human Victoria’s oldest daughter and first child was named Victoria Adelaide Mary, but called Vickie, so I named bee Queen Victoria’s daughter, who then ruled the hive, Queen Vickie. She swarmed in late May 2010, leaving Victoria’s second daughter, now Queen Alice, in charge of the hive.
We captured the second 2010 swarm and that became my second hive.
In 2010, we were able to harvest 15 pounds of honey.
In May 2011, Chris split the hive and I gave Queen Alice and her attendants to my friends the Simons. They were the people who got me into the bee keeping hobby, and their hive kept dying over the winter, whereas mine survived and thrived. I had survivor’s guilt which I assuaged by giving them bees.
The queen remaining in my hive was Alice’s daughter, Queen Irene. Now I have two hives, ruled by Vickie and Irene.
As this queen naming scheme became unmanageable, I’m going to start over with a different one. I’m going alphabetical so I can keep track of the generations, starting with the letter D (great granddaughter of Victoria) and look for a queen name that begins with that letter. Queen Dido, for example.
In 2011, we were able to harvest only 10 pounds of honey, owing to varroa mites in one hive and extreme rains.
2012 Season
All three queens survived last winter in fine shape, with plenty of honey to spare. Supers (a box with frames added to the top of the stack when the lower ones get full) were added to all three hives about a month ago, as there were so many workers and so much pollen and nectar to be gathered that they needed the space.
The weather problem this year is drought. Although the season started strong, if the drought persists, there will be fewer wildflowers, bees and less honey.
Other Highlights of the Past Year
The Ulster County Bee Club had two particularly interesting speakers.
The first was a couple, Laura (Ramona) Herboldsheimer and Dean Stiglitz. She talked about developing hives that are not treated for varroa mites. The theory is to develop a strain of smaller bees, where the smaller larva makes it harder for the mite to reproduce and provides less food for it. The other part of the theory is survival of the fittest. If you don’t treat the bees for varroa (there are several ways to treat without using complicated manufactured chemicals with unknown side effects), gradually lines of bees should develop that are less susceptible to varroa. Ramona and Dean seem to be coming along well in that project. Small time honey producers and caretakers of a couple of hives don’t have the resources for that kind of project but I applaud their efforts.
Dean is a fantastic bee photographer, and his part of the presentation showed how he does it. That is so far about my pay grade, I could only gape at the screen with my mouth hanging open in wonder.
The other interesting speaker was Mike Embrey who is associated with University of Maryland. His Bee Club presentation was on the small hive beetle, but I hosted a reception for him the night before, when he talked about his travels. He’s been to several exotic locations on the planet, like Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Ukraine, forming connections to find out how they raise their bees in different climates and terrain, what problems they have that might be headed our way, how they handle them, helping them with marketing, and in turn learning about some of their special activities. For example, there is a resort on the Black Sea that is flooded with wealthy German tourists in the summer where honey and related chachkas fly off the shelves at premium prices.
And just this past Thursday morning I went with my neighbor Noa to buy some used beehives. The seller is 75 years old and has been keeping bees for 65 years. He still has quite a few hives, and is in good shape himself, but is cutting back on the number of hives. He regaled us with stories for over an hour. One thing about beekeepers: they have a lot of character.
I’m still as in love with my girls as I was when I first got them.
What are your bee, honey, wildflower, nature stories, and how is spring in your climate?
134 Comments
Bee Nice,
Good Morning eCHAN, pups,
Bee food, weed suppression and green manure for the garden. This is one of my garden plots about 8 weeks after harvesting garlic during the third week of July last summer. Buckwheat from near ground level. I took this photo just as the flowers were turning to seed. It is about 16 to 30 inches tall.
Thousands of bees, with absolutely no interest in me as I walked through the rest of my garden, everyday, for about two weeks and then the bees gradually left for better pastures as the seed began to form.
I chopped the buckwheat and turned it into the soil for this season’s gardening.
Good morning, nonq.
I’ve never seen buckwheat before. What a great field of it. I have tasted buckwheat honey, though. Highly flavored, very earthy & deep.
For those who don’t know, the way you get honey from just one crop of flowers is to have enough bees around when that crop blossoms, so that there is enough collected to be able to harvest.
Otherwise, for small honey producers & hobbyists like me, you get generic wildflower honey, which is a mixture of whatever is blooming over the course of a season.
Love this post about bees. Our bee story: Found a group on a split watermelon in a dumpster. A while later, there were black bags of trash on top of the melon. We moved the trash, searched for injured bees. They had escaped. Moved melon to a safer place. We listened for a nearby hive, but never located it. How far do bees go from their hive, to forage? A while later the melon was black with bees again- how they love their watermelon juice!
PS Cool that you name them!
One of the honeys that flies off the shelf in the Black Sea resort I mentioned in the post is from a specific blossom. I did not take notes when Embrey was speaking and I do not remember what it was, but it is highly valued.
Bees can travel several miles to forage.
I’m wondering if you saw honeybees on the watermelon, or some other sugar loving insect. Yellow jackets are a frequent human picnic visitor. You often see them buzzing around the trash, esp the soda cans.
They live in nests in the ground. Entry can be quite large, and I’m told there are always two entrances, so you can’t get rid of them by blocking one. They can be quite aggressive if they perceive they are being threatened.
I have a couple of stories about being attacked by yellow jackets, one while rock climbing.
Honey bees, OTOH, are semitame. You can stand in the middle of them coming & going from the hive and they just either pile up waiting for you to move (like planes at a busy airport waiting for clearance), or fly around you.
Honeybees will sting under a few circumstances. They don’t like to bc if they lose their stinger they die. (Drones btw don’t have stingers.)
If you’re wearing black clothing when you approach, you look like you might be a bear. Or if you’re any animal with black fur, like Chris’s shepherd dog Maggie, who quickly learned not to get too close to the hives.
If a new guard bee (two specific jobs in a hive: funeral director & guard bee; other girls do the rest of the generic work) decides she is going to be super careful on her first duty, might go for it and not live long for her efforts.
If they smell bananas, or if you blow on them. They don’t like the smell of human breath regardless of whether you have halitosis or not.
thanks, eCAHN
the bees were happy with all the privet hedge here the last week or so.
I’ve been watching them work the dandelions. They have what you might call ‘focus.’
on Up!, Christine Todd Whitman being rather appalled at her party losing its conservation mentality
Suggested editorial change.
I seem to remember she was blathering that smoke & dust from WTC pile was perfectly safe. She should bury her head in shame, not appear in public to talk about others’ misdeeds. Wonder how many deaths she is responsible for.
In my experience, yellow jackets are particularly aggressive in late summer, and will sting without provocation during that time of the year.
Party line! she’s contracted out, which is to be understood in listening to anyone bearing the dreaded ‘R’ after their name. Can substitute in ‘Sleaze’ or ‘Liar’ just as easily. You are supposed to do the math yourself.
In his book “The Hockey Stick and Climate Wars,” Michael Mann wrote that the energy companies orchestrated an attack on Whitman with the intention of getting her to resign. They succeeded.
I had a yellow jacket nest in the bottom of my compost last year, which I discovered while weeding nearby. I did not get stung that time, but it was a miracle. I read on the internet that they don’t use the same nest the following year, so I just left them alone. I haven’t seen any near the compost so far this year.
Unfortunately I’ve gotten to the point where I can recognize such attacks before they are exposed in books or on the internet. Unfortunate in the sense that life was more pleasant before I learned cynicism.
Good morning! Fascinating post, eCAHN!
There are a couple of HUGE “bees” (in quotes because I have no idea what they really are) buzzing around the eaves by my screened porch. They’re huge, look to be at least an inch in circumference. I need to try to get closer to see if I can identify them. I hope they’re not nesting up in there!
That photo of you holding the bees is downright scary.
Good morning all and thanks for a delightfull topic eCAHN.
Do you have fruit trees on your property eCAHN? Would your hives make honey that tasted of say, cherry blossoms, if you had cherry trees? Or apples or whatever? Do your bees travel to nearby farms for their nectar and what are those farms growing?
(yes, I am woefully uninformed)
It’s been fascinating and enlightening learning about your “hobby”. Bees truly are marvelous creatures for a variety of reasons, one of which is a society working for the common good.
Thanks, eCAHN, for the post. Years ago (many, many of them), when book clubs were popular, I orders an ‘alternate selection’ titled: Beekeeping: The Gentle Art. We had just bought an old farmstead, and in my dreams I imagined myself as a beekeeper. Instead, I turned to canning, preserving, breadmaking, etc. But the book title never left my mind. At my age, expect beekeeping will remain on my bucket list (along with raising milk cows and guinea fowl), but it’s still fascinating to read about those who practice the gentle art.
The bees we encountered were shy, but tame. After we moved the bag, a few returned right away, and we took a picture. Kind of hard to see, because I am not a good photographer!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70377872@N04/7098694591/in/photostream/lightbox/
Nice post, eCAHNomics! I think the micro- and macro- climate details are interesting and awareness-raising.
Clarify/edit: “tame” as in not aggressive bees. They were a pleasure to watch. Now, when we see stuff they might like during their visits, we put the stuff (bunch of grapes or berries, for example) off to the side so they won’t be killed by incoming bags! Color me nature lover/tree hugger!
I’m not sure what the BigBees are either. They could be bumblebees or carpenter bees. I don’t know how to visually distinguish betw them. I think someone told me carpenter bees are larger, but I’ve yet to be able to get them to stand up next to each other so I can compare & contrast.
Yesterday, there was a large bee on the floor of my back porch, very lethargic & struggling. I got a fork under her & put her on the grass. In the afternoon she was gone. I wonder if it was just the morning chill that made her look near death, and she perked up and flew away when the temp warmed.
Good morning all.
My flowering crabapples were in full bloom recently. My kids and I sat outside on our deck just watching them do the “busy” work.
There must have been hundreds cuz we could hear their humming.
I can’t see them well enough in your photo to figure out what they are.
It’s my (limited) experience with wildlife that if you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone. I’ve had several nonthreatening bear encounters while backpacking in my younger days. Once rounded a bend in the trail up Mt. Baxter in Maine to be face-to-face with a gigantic moose. We both quietly backed off. Have coyotes in my back 40, so I worry about my cat, but not about me. etc.
The crab apple trees are gorgeous when they are in full blossom.
Yes, listening to the honeybees buzzing while they work is another pleasure.
I also love the smell of the hives. I think it’s the wax comb that has such a nice fragrance.
Bee Well!
Little rain here in the NYC Watershed this Spring with NOAA promising a “chance of rain” but no rain, in rain itself.
If we do not get rain soon the leaflets will start blowing off the trees instead of turning into leaves. Lack of water leaves trees less able to fight disease, insects.
I am hoping for rain.
It’s amazing with all the precipitation last year, how quickly the ground water dried up with no winter snow & no rain so far this year.
Check out this short description of research done by the USDA Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA regarding bee breeding for Varroa mite resistance. Sounds like they did it the old timey, bee keeper-approved way versus lab gene splicing but it would be good to confirm.
Then I saw
Environment: Air Pollution Makes Scents
Are industrial pollutants and farm chemicals interfering with the ability of bees to find food?
01-12-2012 // Cynthia Berger
and am wondering if petrochemicals are receptor blockers in bees?
Those articles don’t mention size, but in the photos they look smaller than what I am seeing. I am just going to have to try to get close enough to get a good look or snap a photo. I have thought of zapping them with insecticide simply because I don’t want anything building a nest up in the eaves, but I hesitate to do that.
Good morning, eCAHN and firepups. Glad to hear your bees are well. Read an article recently about disappearing hive syndrome where one cause may be traced to a certain pesticide that interferes with the bees nervous systems, they lose their sense of direction and can’t find their way back to the hive. It said that the pesticide has been banned in France. I think I save the article on my work computer, I’ll have to go back and look to see the name of the pesticide.
Thanks for the link to breeding for varroa resistance. It sounds like what Ramona & Dean are doing just by allowing nature to select those bees that survive without treatment.
As with any pet or farm animal, humans are reluctant to let nature take its course. So we ‘treat’ animals for what ails them, allowing the genetic strain to get weaker & weaker, instead of letting them die with fewer offspring so that the genetic strain gets stronger.
Of course, humans also impose stressors on animals at an increasingly faster pace. So we have to develop cures. Sure seems like a downward spiral when you put it in those terms.
Interesting about smells.
So much to learn; so little time.
I dug up as many of the tulip bulbs I planted a couple of years ago as I could find. They put up leaves that lay on the ground, but only two of about 25 bloomed. I think there’s too much shade.
The university plants tulips already leafed out in the early spring, and digs them up and discards them before graduation (they’re over by then and not attractive) and turns the beds over to geraniums and other annuals for the summer. They dump the discarded bulbs in an empty lot on the edge of campus and local residents take them home, let them dry until the foliage is gone and then plant them in the fall. These are from a couple of seasons of that, and the first spring most of them bloomed, last year not so many, and this year, TWO.
So I am looking for an interesting small shade-tolerant shrub I can put there instead. There’s an azalea that blooms spring, summer and fall that I’m going to try I think.
Any way to get a smokey torch and run them off?
Don’t use an insecticide unless you have proof that they are damaging your structure.
Good morning folks.
I went straight to the kitty on your toes, which draws a big morning Awwww.
Made me think of hydrangea
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/planting.html
Always interesting to read your bee stuff, ecahn. I’m seeing a lot of their bumblebee cousins hanging out in my yard of late. They seem unusually friendly and tame, and almost like they enjoying hovering about and showing off their crazy impossible aerodynamics. Anyway, the sight of any bee-type critter cheers me up. Except yellow jackets which are totally rude and annoying bastards.
Neonicotinides are the generic (i.e. noncommercial) for the chemical you are referring to. CCD is suffered mainly by industrially kept bees, not the smaller bee keepers.
Neonics, btw is what is in Frontline that us cat & dog owners use to keep the fleas & ticks off. In the mid-Hudson, lyme disease is becoming a real problem for humans, so don’t take changes with deer ticks getting on pets then on you.
I won’t. I just don’t want them to be able to get inside the walls. My exterior is cedar and I have enough trouble with woodpeckers. Lots of trees to peck in and they peck holes in the siding instead. Constant battle.
Tulips=deer food.
OTOH, daffys are poisonous. Daffys are almost done blossoming this year, but they are planted all over the place and can be moved over once they are done blooming & will pop up again the next year. Very convenient plant.
Honeybees inside walls are supposed to be harmless & the honey provides extra insulation. So they say. Not sure I’d feel that way if I had a nest in my walls.
Carpenter bees not harmless to your wood.
I’m surprised woodpeckers attack cedar. Thought that was pretty critter resistant.
I planted a couple of hydrangeas in the back, where it is also very shady, and they leafed out so I hope they’ll be healthy. I also have a “tree” hydrangea (it’s grafted onto a slender trunk) planted right where I’m hoping to put three of something that stays fairly small. The tree hydrangea is a variety that is relatively late blooming but then holds its blooms until November.
I think Encore Azaleas might be just the thing! They might have to be judiciously pruned after a few years.
Agree with your evaluation of six legged insects.
The big bee I moved to the grass was so cute I wanted to pet her.
Spring came very early here in NE Ohio with the trees all leafed out now. As I understand it though, this also did a number on the maple syrup.
But it is up and down now with highs yesterday in the mid 70s and now down into the 40s. Currently overcast with fog and mist.
I suspect the shade doomed the tulips. On the other hand, something has munched off several of my hosta as they’re coming up, and also munched some coral bells right off to the ground. Other nearby hosta and coral bells are fine. I suspect deer. The hosta will come up anyway because they’re hard to kill, but I’m worried about the coral bells.
Similar in the mid-Hudson.
Don’t know how the bees figured out that even with a new queen they should stay where they are rather than swarm. I mean, how did they know the nights were going to get chilly again?
Tom, E-Chan,all — good morning! Been wondering about your girls, E-chan, and happy to find this post today.
We are having a light drizzle here in Toronto, after more than a week of sunny days. The warm winter has given us everything that blooms happening all at once. I have never seen so many bloissoms on our periwinkles. We live in an old (neighbourhood (was a little village about 150 yrs ago), tiny front yards and most of us have moved to xeriscaping, encouraged by the city. This means lots of blooming things rather than grass, and *lots* of critters enjoying the nectar. We have had bees and wasps of various types visiting, and butterflies, too (so early!). Yesterday I was going out on my bike a, wearing my high-visibility yellow vest, and a pair of fritillaries actually landed on me, wondering if I might be a flower.
It is a good day when a butterfly lands on you.
How do we humans not know ? (A little ZEN here ?)
Was lurking with nothing to say — and a bee just flew in the back door.
Milorganite, made from waste treatment processing, is a fertilizer that keeps the deer away bc of the smell. You don’t want to use it close to the house, though, for same reason. Don’t know whether it keeps smaller critters away too.
It used to contain heavy metals, but I have been told this year that it no longer does. I haven’t checked the label yet, to see if what I was told is accurate.
We had an unseasonably warm March (a couple of weeks with furnace off and windows open!) here in South Bend, and we’ve had a warmer April than usual, but the last week or so there have been several frost warnings and highs only in the 50s. Not as much rain as the usual April so I worry about the plants that need it after not a lot of winter snow.
I’m going for some periwinkles & other flowering ground cover this year in an attempt to cut back on the amount of mowing I have to do.
Thanks for the reminder. My friends to whom I gave the bees last year have offered me some of their far ranging periwinkles that they pull out and I have to go over & pick them up & plant them.
I have a very small lot, and I have windows open all summer (rarely have AC on), so I’m afraid the smell would make milorganite a non starter. The damage is probably done now, so I will have to figure out something for next spring.
I love living in a heavily wooded area, but the critters are a constant battle.
I have a few daffodils and they grow very nicely in the same shade that has doomed the tulips. There are LOTS of daffs planted in the neighbor’s yard just behind me.
When I redid my driveway (gravel) year before last, I had the guy plant some larger rocks to visually hide my well pipe. I didn’t notice right away that one is white and the other is black. They are too big to move without equipment. I was all in a twit for about a month or two after I noticed the color problem. But then I got my inner self around the problem & decided that I didn’t need to change the rocks but rather needed to change my attitude. The rocks are a perfect yin & yang.
Did you leave a little of your breakfast jam out for her to snack on?
No, but will do so now.
You might want to think twice about the periwinkle. Although it is an effective ground cover with an attractive flower it’s often considered an invasive species. It’s been known to colonize woodlands out competing every native ground cover species resulting in a monoculture at the ground level. A diverse community whether it’s social or natural is a healthy community.
You’re right about the milorganite as a nonstarter in your circumstances.
My cat, Cahnstance, keeps the small critters away from right near the house.
Well, except for the phoebe that nests on the front porch, craps all over it, and spews mud on the windows when she is building her nest. It’s not as though there isn’t a whole outdoors for her to build on.
I think Cahnstance might be getting the clue though. I saw her crouching on the top step below the porch floor a couple of days ago, watching the phoebe come & go. Maybe by next year, the bird & the cat will come to an understanding about where the former is allowed to nest.
Thanks for the info. There is a landscaper in the family. I’ll ask her before I do the work. The periwinkle my friends have is planted in their garden, as as I mentioned, they pull it up when it spreads too far.
Back home from a canoe excursion. Morning again pups.
Some woodpeckers make holes in softer wood, cedar, and the holes do attract certain insects that see a convenient home.
If one planted buckwheat every three weeks in successive plantings, a continuous stream of blossoming over a period of time could be achieved. It is sensitive to cold, I’ve sowed a cover crop too early and frost nipped it pretty well. Oh, and a stand planted away from your veggies may distract your resident deer from your other food.
Four days of rain in the forecast so perhaps this season will bee salvaged.
I am curious about a question asked earlier. Does your honey have a particular flavour? Buckwheat? clover? Is it light or dark?
Nonconforming rocks, great attitude enhancer.
:-)
Didn’t know that about buckwheat either. Thanks.
You’re welcome!
Completely in the bee trivia category (I totally tripped over this which kinda grew on me the more I listened) …
What do you get if you cross sweet barbershop acoustic harmonies, clever lyrics, mime, “Steam Punk,” performance art and three young men from San Diego?
“Honeybee” by Steam Powered Giraffe (video shows a beetle called the “bumble bee” rather than a honey bee though)
That’s the spirit!
Yes indeed! In fact, periwinkle is considered an invasive plant here, and not allowed in yards that border on parkland, ravines, or other open land. (there are other, better links, but City of Toronto *loves* pdf’s, and I do not). However, it is one of the few things that will grow under my big old maple tree, so it stays. Confession — I also allow garlic mustard, but ‘harvest’[ it early — for pesto. Poetic justice, I think :).
Honeys from different crops do have different flavors and colors. The buckwheat ones are the darkest ones I seen and the flavor is distinct.
My honey is generic wildflower. Delicious.
In my first diary on the bees, someone asked if the honey tasted the same as what you buy in the supermarket. There is NO relationship whatsoever. The supermarket ones are highly processed, including pasteurization, which not only kills the subtle natural flavors, but also gives it a kind of chemical or metallic aftertaste. I never liked that kind of honey & didn’t realize what a diff it made until I had my own honey.
It’s making me think I should search out a source of raw milk. I’ll bet the flavor diff is also marked.
The bugaboo in the SW is dandelions, but letting my grass etc. grow in the spring instead of cutting it (scalping, actually) as soon as it greens up has converted my neighbors, since that eliminates most of the pestiferous dandies.
The landscaper in the family advised me to plant some rocks in my herb garden which I am redoing & enlarging this year. I found a pretty white one, and on the yin-yang idea, picked up a softly rounded slate colored one yesterday as a companion piece. They look hokey where I put them for the time being, but once the herbs grow in around them, could look quite nice. The herb garden abuts my kitchen wing, which has stone walls, so the stones in the garden carry on the theme.
You sound like you are the right person for your nature scapes and enjoying them all the while. Enjoy.
An upside to the periwinkle is that it is a source of vinca alkaloids which are anti-cancer in humans. ;-)
My attitude about dandelions has done a 180 since I got the bees. I now consider a lawn full of dandelions a beautiful sight.
Funny about how much what goes on in your head influences what your senses perceive.
Good Morning, Beecahn
Thanks for the update. I got up late and will go back to read all the comments, but wanted to jump in here to say Hey.
We have a lot of bees in our yard this time of year, as we have a flowering ground cover that attracts them. I don’t know what brand of bee they are. There’ll smallish, I guess.
Yesterday, I saw a huge black thing that looked like a bee. The bee was hovering over the Carolina Jasmine, looking like it was too big to get at the goods.
Oh, and, eCAHN, that huge cactus blossom stem, which ended up being about 7 feet long was covered with whitish/yellowish blossoms that also attracted the bees.
Now, I’ll go try to catch up.
Nice, long thread. :) Thanks!
I got my Kid to bring some large quartz rocks from MD and they look wonderful, at least to me. Also got a MO rock full of small geodes, with little crystal pockets, all over it. Working at that rock garden a bit at a time.
Please find me a link that proves that poison ivy cures cancer. I’ve got acres of it, and am looking for a way to put it to productive use & make money from it at the same time.
They’re also much enjoyed by wine makers, and I’ve had the pleasure of downing some dandelion wine as well. But I do keep them down, since I have neither bees or vinting in mind.
I haven’t had much econversation with my cactus growing friend about bees. His interest is narrowly confined to cactus breeding to the extent he competes in shows. But he does send around photos of his cacti in bloom and there’s a bee or two in them from time to time.
Hmmm. I used to know about dandelion wine. Have to look for it. Some one local must make it.
I don’t use much honey, but this year maybe I will look for it at the Farmer’s Market. I’m not sure if there’s a vendor who sells it there, but that would be the likely spot.
What time of year would I be likely to find it, eCAHN?
I found my first wild asparagus of the season. A few patches here that are sheltered on the north and the soil warms a bit faster, there. Three inches of snow overnight Thursday to Friday morning, which melted by late afternoon brought some much needed moisture.
You should be able to find it year round. It never spoils if it’s capped in a jar. They’ve found edible honey in Egyptian tombs.
Harvesting in the NE could begin as early as August or September, depending on the year and how much excess the girls have made. My bee keeper is quite conservative in the sense of making sure they have enough to get through the most severe winter. The weather (drought-flood-drought-flood, etc) has been so variable that yields have been low & we have not harvested until October.
Yes, farmers market is place to look. When you find it make sure to tell the seller to thank his bees for you.
I had my niece’s husband transplant some wild asparagus last May to a more convenient location. I picked 6 scrawny shoots two days ago. I have to look up whether it spreads by itself and other growing characteristics. Where it grows naturally, it does seem to be spreading, but it is surrounded by poison ivy so I don’t keep a close watch on it.
OK, I will! Our Farmer’s Market is open year-around, although much of what’s on offer during the winter is crafty things (it is not limited to food). We have a seafood seller where I got perhaps the best salmon I’ve ever eaten last week, and I’m going back today for more. Another vendor has free range poultry, and I buy my eggs from a little old Hungarian lady. I love the place!
Nothing much to say, other than bzzzzzzzz!
Thanks for the Bee Update!
Hmmm (my bold) …
With respect to AIDS, I haven’t done any literature review to see if anyone has studied to see if the virus messes with normal biochemical activity of the bone marrow.
You might want to consider vetch. It is hardy, perennial, and the very pretty blossoms make great bee-fodder, although they bloom much later than periwinkle. Seems controversial, though. Sigh. Maybe American vetch?
For ‘earlies’ we have snowdrops, which are much visited by bees, and which gracefully disappear after blooming (unlike tulips and such — those great, floppy leaves, so untidy!). A neighbour gave us a couple of shovel-fuls a couple years back and they have made themselves at home, now make a great show (and snack-bar) before anything else blooms.
We are trying to change over to more native plants, but betw the shade and the maple roots, it is hard to get anything to survive. I have read that maple roots exude a toxin that kills many other plants — seems likely to me. The blazing star and the hepatica don’t seem to have made it through the winter, although the columbine and the solomons seal are looking fine. No blooms yet, tho.
Morning, Nonquixote,
Snow? Still? It was 95 in the shade yesterday. Ruh roh. With this early spring thing happening, I’m worried about how hot it will get this summer. But, I guess that’s a waste of worry, as it will bee what it will bee. :)
Southern Dragon also has maple roots, is doing raised beds that shut out the toxins, also some container gardening.
I get free range eggs for free from my neighbors. The local winter farmers market, once/month, consists of CSA shares of mostly frozen local organic vegies, meat vendors whose processors freeze them in serving size portions, a goat cheese lady, one person who does pickles & things, maple syrup, honey, etc.
Two weeks ago, when I went to pick up my last winter CSA share, there were some early fresh offerings. Ramps, some sort of cress that is not grown in water (very peppery and very good), monster carrots that one farmer grows in his greenhouse all winter long, and pea shoots.
I’ve got lots of cow vetch that grows in my fields. Also, last year I had a ton of wild mint in the way back. Its flower is not particularly pretty close up, but from a short distance, it looked like a field of purplish blue for a couple of weeks.
My saying for that: No reason to get anticipatory anxiety. There will be plenty of time to worry about it later.
My cultivated patch is a, “wild,” variety and about four of the mature crowns (out of about 30) throw out a crop of seeds each year. I have turned a 4 foot square into a 20′ by 14′ bed by raking up the seeds when they drop and spreading them around as I increased the size of the bed. The plants should be left alone for about two-three years for the stalks to get about as big as your little finger before harvesting. Two inches of compost and a straw/shredded bark mulch keep the weeds down. About once a month during the season it takes me about ten minutes to go through and pull every small weed before they go to seed.
I understand that asparagus sold at nurseries, now, is all male plants.
This is our Farmer’s Market. We have the aforementioned poultry vendor, a butcher, a small vendor selling lamb, an Amish man selling grass-fed beef, lots of breads and pastries, and in the fall, loads of homegrown fruits and veggies. Plus lots of small vendors selling homemade knit items, flowers and plants, fresh Christmas wreaths (in season), and in the center a little diner that sells breakfasts and lunches and is always packed!
Ha! I like that. And, if there’s nothing concrete to worry about, there’s always free-floating anxiety.
Morning eCAHN,
When I was small and went on overnight fishing trips with my father, breakfast was always buckwheat pancakes with buckwheat honey instead of syrup. A true delicacy.
Re raw milk, when I was very small we would visit my great, great uncle’s farm. (He died before I started school.) He made the most wonderful home made ice cream. Even though the family had the exact recipe,nobody could duplicate the flavor. Thirty-five years later I had a glass of raw milk at my neighbor’s father’s farm. Immediately, I knew what the difference was. Processing takes a lot out of milk. But public health people say the potential for disease in raw milk is very high and it’s illegal to sell in many states. Personally, I’d have no qualms about buying raw milk from a farmer selling to a dairy with cows whose medical records are verified and milk that’s tested very regularly. Another thought, even when farmers can’t sell raw milk, they can consume it. I think it would be legal if you gave a farmer gifts of honey and the farmer gave you gifts of milk.
It’s even getting difficult to get unpasteurized apple cider! There is a word for unpasteurized cider–apple juice.
I tried to introduce my children to the rhythms and beauty of nature.
As part of this, in the spring I would have them cut colorful stips of yarn and leave them in the yard. A week or so later we would hike about the yard looking for bird nests. The colorful yarn incorporated in the nests allowed us to spot them more easily. After locating the nests, the kids followed the bird families through early summer.
The kids all seemed to enjoy it, except for my middle daughter. She always seemed less than enthusiastic about the project. It seemed pretty clear that she put this annual spring project in the “another one of dad’s crazy ideas/ I hope my friends don’t hear about this” category.
A week ago, I had dinner at my middle daughter’s home. After dinner, her daughter said she had something to show me. She took me out to their backyard and pointed out a bird’s nest. This nest featured several strips of bright yarn.
Also my relative landscaper suggested a bunch of ground cover plants for next to the stream. It has been taken over by that invasive bedstraw week that grows overnight to about 10′ & covers everything, turns tan in winter, unsightly as shit. The landscaper’s list was planned so the ground cover would out compete the bedstraw and something would be in bloom throughout the season.
I worry about my bees when there worry well gets drawn down.
Sweet story. She realized Mark Twains belief that parents get smarter as the kids get older. :)
Meant that the word for PASTEURIZED cider is apple juice.
Thanks for the info on raw milk. My neighbor Noa knows a lot more locals than I do so I’ll ask her to ask around. There are also a couple of people who raise steers, who might know about milk cows.
Hey demi, heavy wet snow that melted almost as fast as it arrived. Much needed moisture, I have not set out any garden transplants yet. Sounds like you need a canopy over your garden to cut the sun and prevent burning everything up. They do that here in central WI for cultivated ginseng, but I see that smarter folks are cultivating in forested areas.
Your bees are your family. Your bees are an important part of your microenvironment. And, they make honey. They deserve a real portion of legitimate concern.
Go for it!
What an interesting idea the yarn is.
I sometimes pick up birds nests that have fallen down after they are no longer in use. It distresses me when I find shreds of blue plastic tarp woven in. But it is a form of natural recycling.
A big success for me is arugula, it seeded out and spread all over my west 40, had to be mowed back and I provided many friends with seeds for their planting.
Now I need to get some things done, thanks for good company, bee happy.
That’s what I thought you meant.
We have no shortage of real apple cider in season here.
So, if I were smarter, I’d live in a forested area.
I could get together with Molly and between her overshadiness and my upper desert hothothot, things could even out.
(I know, that’s a very strange thought, but you have been warned before, I believe.)
Fun thread, this morning, eCAHN and friends. I’m off to the aforementioned Farmer’s Market, followed by a quest for that small shade-loving shrub (don’t want to order online, but I can). Sun is shining brilliantly but it is chilly, and I’m hoping it warms up enough for a bike ride this afternoon.
Have a great day and weekend, everyone!
I cut the asparagus shoots & cooked them just to see what the flavor was. I’ll let nature take its course from here on. I know I’ve got both male & female, as some have seeds & some don’t.
Maybe you’ll like this:
[Video] Andy Goldsworthy Naturalist Artist – P1
I’m starving. I’ve had only coffee this morning. I need to hop to make brunch.
I’ll come back later & answer any Qs that pop up.
My beekeeper is supposed to come today to split the hive(s). As he is overcommitted, I’ll be surprised if it actually happens. But he has to show up one of these days, and today is perfect. Not too much wind, overcast and mid-60s so the girls aren’t too active.
Bee well.
Keep watching the fine print. In the past three years two of my regular sources of cider switched to pasteurized. These are cider mills–not stores. When I asked, both mentioned liability concerns. They seemed to think anyone who had a stomach ache within a week of drinking unpasteurized cider could drag them into court. Maybe they’re right.
It still isn’t hard to get. The smaller the cider mill, the better your chances.
This was fun, eCAHN! Thank you and have a great breakfast and the rest of your day.
If you were growing ginseng, I guess. :-)
LOL. Just read that and you are too funny this morning, ms demi!
Nice that you can get to some of it and I wish i had a suggestion for controlling the poison ivy.
Thanks for the bee update, eCHAN. I’ve always wanted to give it a go. A local keeper was selling out last year, had an stainless steel extractor about as big as 55 gal drum and everything else, including the bees. I passed for lack of knowledge about the whole process.
You think a panacea would help? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Have a great day, mister.
Molly, demi, pups have a nice day, chores are waiting and i am attending an earth day gathering this afternoon. The local sustainable living group. Some presentations and a nice crowd of folks.
Bee well, all!
Hi BeeEmpress…just finished curry combing Les Horsies…..ill call ya later
Hi, all. I haven’t had time to read the whole thread, so if I am being redundant here, please forgive me. Perhaps some of you have seen this.
Again, I may be redundant.
Here is the article. The pointed observation comes at the end.
Bee keeping requires quite a bit of knowledge.
Either that or the frame of mind to be a plunger, i.e., plunge into an activity that you think you’d enjoy and learn by doing.
I’ve done that on some sports, but I am not of the right frame of mind to do it with animal husbandry.
Opinion is mixed on neonicotinides. The cause & effect has not been definitely shown, i.e., CCD has shown up in countries before neonics were used, etc.
It certainly can’t be good for the bees, that much is certain.
My beekeeper thinks the stress of industrial bees being used to pollinate thousands of acres of monoculture is also a huge contributor to CCD. Bees’ gestation periods are only 2-3 weeks. Imagine a pregnant woman eating only GM corn syrup for 9 months. Then apply that diet to bees that are being carted around the country on 18-wheelers to pollinate monoculture crops.
Honey
sweetest of nature,
sweetest of relationship,
dream disguised in taste.
MBJ Pancras
Just been out foraging and came across this article, seems relevant: The Autism Epidemic and Disappearing Bees: A Common Denominator?
Ooh, a bee article by eCAHN! Late, as usual, and need to run out – but I’m definitely coming back to read this.
I’ve been fascinatd “watching” your adventure with beekeeping, eCAHN. So many valluable things I’ve learned from you, as you learn them from your bee girls.
eCAHNomics, Once again, you have done an excellent job hosting PUAC. Thank you.
Bees have general assemblies!
“An individual scout returning to the cluster promotes a location she found. She uses a dance similar to the waggle dance to indicate direction and distance to others in the cluster. The more excited she is about her findings the more excitedly she dances. If she can convince other scouts to check out the location she found, they may take off, check out the proposed site and promote the site further upon their return. Several different sites may be promoted by different scouts at first. After several hours and sometimes days, slowly a favorite location emerges from this decision making process. When all scouts agree on a final location the whole cluster takes off and flies to it.”
Will respond to added comments tomorrow. After I ate this morning, I started planting my herbs, then Chris came to split hives (an update update tomorrow if it does the predicated & actually rains). Then planted more herbs, fixed & ate dinner. Rain started around 1/2 hour ago, but I’m done in for tonight.
Thanks to everyone for a lively PUAC.
Thank you, eCAHN. Wonderful diary and comments.
Bees are true communists. The colony is everything. Completely the opposite to the alpha male human evolutionary model.
Both models are under environmental threat. A very interesting test of how the earth’s future will develop.
Remember, it’s not about humans, or even honeybees or the earth. All of which are penny ante.
It’s about science, which is unemotional and separated from my love for honey bees, or Xtians certainty (or Muslims’ certainty) that god is on their side.
If the earth gets trashed by humans, so be it. There are plenty of other solar systems.
Meanwhile, it is truly emotionally engaging to have honey bees buzzing around. While it is not about them or humans, it can certainly consume one’s life to engage with these marvels of nature.