Bees!

This morning a friend and I drove to the supplier’s place to pick up our packages of 10.000 bees (3 lbs) with a marked Italian Queen. Driving back with a couple of loose bees in the car was no problem: they stuck with their caged compatriots, maybe listening in while we talked doom :)

Installing the package was surprisingly easy. I knew the procedure by heart. I removed the can with the syrup, which opens up the box:

Then I fished out the queen cage:

I shook her helpers off into the hive, checked that she was alive (she was), then looked for the cork that is supposed to cover the candy, and found none (huh?), and so  installed it by wedging it between two frames. Then I shook all the other bees out into the hive.

You shake the box this way and that and they just fall on top of the frame and crawl in. I put the box near the hive entrance, so whatever live bees remained could easily find their way in. Then I carefully pushed the frames together and closed up the hive.

All this with three puffs of smoke and no spraying of the bees with sugar water like it is sometimes advised. The bees seemed happy to be out of that tiny box and into a new, clear home. They started clearing out the dead bees (because unfortunately, with this method, those get shaken in as well) and guarding the entrance right away. I was glad to get out of the bee suit, though: it was an exceptionally hot  and humid day, and the suit was a boiler.

Then came the doubt. Really, no cork? The tiny cork is supposed to cover a piece of candy that the bees chew through to release the Queen: a slow release that helps them get used to her pheromones. If I installed the queen cage with the cork, the queen wouldn’t be able to get out, lay no eggs, and the hive would die. I couldn’t afford to wait till the next inspection, which is in a week.

So I went in again, this time with some trepidation. I found the cork on the candy end of the cage. It was totally covered over with wax. It took me a minute or so to pry it out with my hive tool. Again the bees were docile – luckily, because I had to relight my smoker a couple of times.

I do love the sight of that hive  (just one brood box so far), and the bees flying in and out the entrance (reduced, so they can guard it more easily). I hope they feel at home and find their way around soon.

And Amie? She came running when I got home to see the box and was truly wowed by buzzing and moving of those many bees. Unfortunately I hadn”t come back in time to show it to her preschool class. She wanted to help me install them but I explained we don’t have a suit for her. So she and DH watched through the window.

This Year’s Robins Nest

Every Spring, since we’ve been here, we’ve had a Robin’s nest near the house. That’s why we call the place Robin Hill – plus it has a little bit of Robin Hood in it.

Year One (2008) they chose the rafters of the carport and Year Two they chose the nook next to Year One’s nest.  We never understood why they do this, as the carport is a relatively busy place. Each time we would walk in or past, the Robin on duty would take off with a great flutter of wings to perch on a nearby tree branch from which to scold us until we left.

I know that Robins will return ever year  but will never re-use a nest, and now it seems that they won’t even use the same space. In anticipation of their return I had moved the two old nests so they could go there again, as they seemed to like it so much. Instead they chose to move into the Japanese Andromeda that is right next to the mudroom entrance and the guest room window. An even busier place!

We now use our other (main) door – which leads straight into the living room – as often as we can, and try to tiptoe around, but it is difficult not to disturb them. The frantic escape from the dense bush is even more alarming what with all the leaves flying off as well. Still, it makes for great observation. Maybe we will install that webcam.

So far there are three beautiful blue eggs in the nest (Robins lay one egg a day and usually stop at four) — ah, that was based on my quick peek yesterday: today there are four!

And one wary Momma Robin (it’s usually the females who incubate the eggs).

There must be a bird’s nest in our shed as well. Each time we walk in there is a loud chirping, but we haven’t located it yet, so I can’t say what it is. Maybe the wrens, who always hang out in that shed.

Riot for Austerity – Months 17 and 18

Riot for Austerity fist with Thermometer

Wew, it’s May 2 already, over two months since I reported on our Riot.I’ll average March and April (Mapril). Last year’s averages (calculated here) are mentioned as a baseline. I use this calculator.

Gasoline.

12.66 gallons per person (pp) in cars + 10 miles pp on public transport

= 31 % of the US National Average

(Last year’s yearly average: 24.8%)

Electricity. Our electricity bills are high for these months because of the growing lights and heat mat. I’ll be happy to turn them off as soon as the new hoop house is up and running hot.

631 KWH (all wind) =  17 % of the US National Average

(Last year’s early average: 18.2% – we only switched to wind in the middle of the year)

Heating Oil and Warm Water. Finally going down. (Also our warm water is heated with this oil.)

23.8 gallons =  39 % of the US National Average

(Last year’s yearly average: 77%)

Trash. The usual.

3 lbs pp = 2 % of the US National Average

(Last year’s yearly average: 7.3%)

Water. We’re way above our usual average, which is around 14-16%), because seeds and seedlings and newly planted bushes and trees need a lot of water, and we are (still!) trying to establish a small lawn in the back (it’s been a dry couple of months). I had only one rain barrel set up for a while and several beds already in operation, it emptied too quickly and a dry spell kept it empty for too long, to my liking. We have added a second one in the meantime and hope to fit our waterworks into our busy schedule so we can hook up the other two.

628.3 gallons of water pp = 21 % of the US National Average

(Last year’s yearly average: 16.5%)

Consumer Goods. All of our purchases were towards the garden this month, so I won’t count them (good, because we spent quite a bit, what with timber and new plastic for the new hoop house, compost, etc).

$0 = 0% of the US National Average

(Last year’s yearly average: 27.2%)

Here’s a Funny One – Hoop House Adventures

Excerpt from chat between DH (at office) and myself (at home):

  • me: It’s soooooo windy I fear the hoop house will fly off.
  • DH: It won’t.
  • me: Really?
  • DH: Yeah. Really.
  • me: Check your email.

I had just sent him this:

Yup, that’s our hoop house, SPLAT.

Amie and I were outside for a while in the morning, trying to get the herb spiral going, but the wind got so bad we had to flee inside from the sticks and branches coming down from the trees. We were in the dining room drawing and reading when there was this loud flapping sound followed immediately by a whoosh. I ran to the bedroom window and it was so weird not to see the top of the hoop house where it had been for many months.

But I count ourselves very, very lucky, for many reasons.

  1. No one got hurt.
  2. No plants inside the hoop house got hurt.
  3. I still had little metal hoops over the garlic and rhubarb bed you see in the foreground, so none of these were crushed.
  4. The whole flapping mess got caught by the trees, so it stayed away from the road.
  5. The timing couldn’t have been better: it sheltered the tomato seedlings through last night’s frost, and we were going to dismantle it anyway over the weekend.
  6. And most importantly: THE BEES WERE NOT THERE. If they had not been delayed by a week, their hive would have been right in the path of the flying hoop house and indeed right where it landed. Now that would have been a mess. I can see myself running out there, in veil and gloves…

So there you have it, dear reader. Never say never.

Vote For My Ocean Hero!

My friend, Laura Medrano-Hernandez, has been nominated for the Ocean Hero Awards and I’m voting for her.

Oceana, which organizes the awards, was founded in 2001 and is the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Their website is a gem, with tips for play, research, activism and (if you’re so inclined) shopping (with a sustainable seafood guide).

You can vote for my friend too by simply clicking the button. Please do, she so deserves it!

Rhubarb Flower Stalk

This long flower stalk appeared over four hot days on one of the rhubarb plants. After doing some research I decided to pull it, as well as the smaller stalk on the other plant, as letting the rhubarb go to seed will reduce its vigor and next year’s yield. As the plants are only two years old, it’s necessary to force them  to concentrate on roots, rather than offspring.

Unfortunately the flower stalks are not edible, as they contain oxalic acids – same as the roots and the leaves, only the leaf stalks can be eaten.

Today there’s soft rain again and it’s chilly. We haven’t seen any of that snow, still I’m happy I didn’t plant my tomato seedlings out. They’re in the hoop house under grow cover. The downturn in the weather also got to Amie, who is home sick with a cold. I’ll be spending the day with her, investigating pruning and possible cherry tree guilds.

The sour cherry tree and a truck load of bushes are arriving on Friday, the bees on Monday. Busy times ahead!

Child in the Garden

The child is sick now with a cold – it seems to be going around in the schools. And it’s raining – a soft, welcome rain. But yesterday we were outside most of the day planting more seeds:

She wrote the ASTER labels. We sowed Asters, more Calendula, Monarda, and two more kinds of Sunflowers: 20 pots in all.

We’ve been charmed by the balmy, sunny weather these last few weeks, but tonight it will be 35F, give or take a couple of degrees depending on where you are. I gave a friend the tomatoes I had been growing for him, and he planted them out two days ago. I hope they’ll survive the night.

He was surprised to see the size of the other seedlings, the ones I started on schedule. They looked so small to him, compared to the tomato seedlings, which I started three weeks ahead of schedule, and compared to the weather. I had to remind him we were still a week away from May, and that, according to the statistics, there is still a 70% chance of frost. The seasons do seem to be shifting, so I don’t know how relevant those old-order statistics are now, but it is a matter of observation that the weather is also more prone to swinging from extreme to extreme. All the more reason to use caution. Not to be charmed, too much.

Poetry or Bees

This weekend I did very little gardening. Amie and I did our daily chore of watering the garden that’s in as well as all the seedlings that are  inside the house. That was all. We had planned to recreate the hoop house but instead we saw many friends, attended a hive opening, waited for rain (still none) and relaxed a bit.

The hive opening was the perfect ending to the beekeeping class. It is good to hear the theory and the stories and advice of an experienced beekeeper. But it’s only when you press your nose (actually, your veil) to a frame crawling with honeybees that you know: Yes, I can do this! Three insights were reassuring for me. One, that the bees are so docile. Two, that they did not venture far from the hive (stayed within 10 feet or so) while we were working it, so I won’t have to run down the street to tell the neighbor’s kids to retreat inside the hive for 15 minutes while I work it. Three, that when you accidentally kill a bee while putting in a frame, it is like stepping on someone’s toe, and the reaction is mild.

That last one is what fascinates me the most about bees, that it’s not 10.000, or 40.000 bees, but 1 colony, 1 organism made up of many parts.  My bee package arrives next Monday and I can’t wait.

I am debating what to do with my evening: read poetry or paint more hive parts (I purchased a landing, a screened bottom board and an entrance reducer). Poetry or bees, bees or poetry…

Kale Going to Seed and Amie in the Garden

The four vigorous kale plants that survived the winter in the hoop house are bolting. I am daily harvesting three of them, letting the biggest one going to seed for saving. Since all four plants are of the same kind, and there are no other brassicas going to seed within a mile, there is no need to be concerned about cross-pollination and seed that is not true. I wish Risa had a good search option on her blog, Stony Run Farm, because I remember (correctly?) an entry on how many seeds one kale plant can yield.

Kale is really one of our favorites, especially when overwintered, because then it is sweeter, subtler in taste.  I chop up the stems and saute them first, then add the leaves and saute till they turn that very bright green. Salt and pepper and you have a tasty, healthy side dish.

I am already harvesting seed from the Claytonia (Claytonia perfoliata, Miner’s lettuce, Winter Purslane, Spring Beauty, or Indian lettuce), which is  of the Portulacaceae family. The picture was taken on a cloudy moment: click to see the long, thin seeds at the end of the stems.

The Claytonia bloomed at the same time as the Mache (Valerianella  locusta, Corn Salad, Lamb’s Lettuce or Lamb’s Tongue) and the Minutina (Plantago coronopus,  Buckshorn Plaintain, or Erba Stella). This is hopefully not of concern because they all belong to different families (Mache to the Valerian family and Minutina to the Plantain family) so they (probably) don’t cross-pollinate.

On the other side, I’ve sowed, outside, three kinds of carrots, lots of marigolds, borage and calendula all over, and more summer lettuce mix. That’s a lot of beds to keep moist now that my rain barrel is empty. Running to the kitchen to fill my small watering can with filtered tap water is a nuisance, but good exercise.

Amie has been busy in the garden too. I don’t mention her help and advice as often as I should. It is so much fun to observe her in the garden, singing to herself as her little hands plants seeds, stumbling as she lugs the heavy watering can, but mostly just skipping and dancing. It is at such moments that I think: what an enchanted life we have!

Here she is with the 20 sunflowers she just sowed, and then again with all of “her” flowers (all flowers) in the hoop house:

The Morning Glory, Pink Rose Mallow, Sweet Pea and Zinnias all germinated.

(Yes, that’s pajamas. In the afternoon. Hey, it’s the holiday week, and the pajamas were destined for the laundry anyway.)

Scraping the Bottom

… of the rain barrel.

I had only one set up and it filled with the first rain, several weeks ago. Today, after many days of intense watering (intense for early Spring, that is), I used the last of it. This was good, as we wanted it lighter so we could move it in order to add another barrel to the setup. But the forecast was for a thunderstorm, and this has not materialized yet. So now I have no more pure water, and I balk at watering the garden with our chlorinated tap water as this would kill off all the innoculants.

Well, in any case, here’s our new barrel setup in the back:

The higher barrel overflows into the lower one via the smaller black tube on top. The lower one overflows into the drain via the larger, brown tube at the bottom.

I’m quite pleased to have replaced the cinder blocks. This is much nicer looking!