The Birds And The Bees

Well, the bee hive continues to be a big question mark for now.  I confirmed that the queen had emerged from her cell, removed the langstroth frame, and added a couple of bars (for new building) with minimal manipulation on Monday.  On Saturday, we did a more thorough inspection of the hive, hoping we might observe the queen or evidence of new brood.

Nothing.

We didn't see any sign of Queen number 9, but we also observed normal, calm hive behaviour with a bustle of activity and no aggression.  I'll take that as a good sign, and leave things be for another week.  There aren't a lot more options now, as we are reluctant to buy another queen after losing our import to begin with, and it's getting rather late in the season for nectar flow and re-building the colony numbers.

Celine is still sitting on her eggs, and we *could* see chicks by the weekend.  We've set up a temporary shelter to move her (or likely the 2 older girls) into if she manages to hatch out any little ones.  We did attempt to candle the eggs to identify if we have any potential chicks on the way, but with very little experience and a normal flashlight, I couldn't say for sure what I was looking at.  Two of the eggs appear to match online diagrams showing a late death at 10-16 days, but I'm unwilling to risk viable eggs due to my own uncertainty. I won't be jostling the eggs again until I am sure they are no longer viable.

Another sunny, dry day in the garden... I broke down and got out the sprinkler on Sunday to supplement the drip irrigation lines.

Late July Update

Well, it's been just over three weeks for my gooseberry cuttings, and there was a 50% success rate, which I'm perfectly happy with.  There is evidence of good rooting, and new growth.

The blueberry cuttings are starting to look a bit questionable, but I'll keep watching and watering.  The lavender and hydrangea cuttings seem much happier. I'll be taking cuttings of the currant bushes as soon as I locate my bottle of rooting powder (?!) It's probably somewhere with my spare set of pruners and the gardening gloves I can't find...

In the hoop house, everything is growing like crazy - though more with leaves than with the vegetables I'm waiting for.  It's true that a lot of gardeners judge their gardens by when they have their first tomatoes, and I'm running behind.  The neighbour has already been eating ripe, red fruit - from tomato plants that I gave her (which makes my impatience slightly worse).  Her plants are falling over with fruit, while mine are just showing a few per plant. She dug up the side lawn and plopped them into the ground, while I added rabbit manure, topsoil eggshells and manure tea! It just goes to show that you can't account for all the circumstances in your garden.  Heading into week 6 without rain certainly isn't helping. This is one of the Siletz plants I have my eye on:

Oh well - there's still weeks to go for the tomato season. Just as I'm not terribly sad to see the blueberry bushes finishing up their production for the year, we'll soon be harvesting tomatoes daily in the heat, and wondering what to do with them all.  At least I'm starting to harvest the zucchini and cucumber crops, and the bees are helping with that. I've never managed to have enough cucumbers ripen at once before, for making my pickles - I've bought my supply at the farmer's market. This year may be the first year in my gardening history that cucumbers - and homegrown dill - are ready for pickling in adequate quantities at the same time.

 

The leaves of the shallots and multiplier onions started to fall over, so I finished harvesting them this morning.  They'll cure outside in the sun for a couple of days, then go into the carport to finish drying with the garlic bulbs (which have already had a preliminary cleaning). The biggest of these onions will be planted back into a freshly-prepared garden bed (after the wheat is harvested) at the same time as we put out our garlic in October.

 

The bed that was hosting our garlic plants and peas is now home to chard, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, pole beans and some peas planted for harvesting as pea tips. The transplants were getting a bit root-bound waiting for more space, so I've got my fingers crossed that they will establish themselves and not bolt to seed. The Jerusalem artichoke in the background is flourishing - and escaping into my pathways as it tries to expand its territory. That's fine, as the rabbits are happy to eat the invaders.

 

Celine is still sitting on 'her' eggs, so we're counting down another five or six days and hoping to hear the peeps of a few baby chicks.  I'm prepared to house mother hen and her little ones in a dog kennel and covered run, if the other adult hens seem intent on interfering or harming them.

Gooseberry Update

It seems that our gooseberry transplanting went well, and the cuttings I took for propagation have been hanging out in the shade of our gazebo in this month-long drought and heat wave.  What gardener actually *sits* in a gazebo anyways, right?

 

Within a few days of starting these cuttings in soil, the plants started to look like they were dying as they began to wilt and drop their leaves.  I wasn't fooled - I've done this before.

The trick is to just let the plants adjust to the shock, and remember to water them daily to assure contact with the soil.  Soon, those that have managed to root will put out new growth.  My lavender, blueberry and hydrangea cuttings are also sitting under an improvised plastic cover to ensure high humidity, increasing their chances of successfully rooting. I haven't had any luck propagating blueberries before, but decided to give it another try this year.  After another week or so, I will give each successfully rooted gooseberry plant a separate container, and put them with my other potted plants that I've divided and propagated from the garden.  Next on the list is pruning and propagating the currant bushes.

Still Dreaming of Tomatoes

The tomato plants are growing like crazy, but the fruits seem to be taking forever to set right now.  Sometimes it's hard to be patient.

The tomato plants were transplanted out to the hoophouse on May 15th, and we are just starting to see a few little green tomato hints. 

This is what our planting looked like this morning - with winter squash, peppers and cucumbers added along the front and sides.  This picture was taken *before* I spent an hour and a half hacking back unnecessary foliage and pulling a few weeds.  Keeping things open for better air flow, pollination and visibility is important.  I've had issues with mildew on the squash vines before, and I'll do my best to keep the plants trimmed and focus their energy on ripening those fruits that will be ready before the cold weather hits in October.  I'll be pruning at least twice a week from now until the end of tomato season to keep things tidy.  Then the chickens move back into their winter shelter...

Barley Harvest

Yesterday, as the sun finally slid behind the house and gave a reprieve to part of the garden, I took up my pruners, untangled the chicken exclusion wire and row cover fabric, unclipped our hastily-added potential rain deflector of landscape fabric, and freed our bed of barley from it's layers of protection.
I'm sure the neighbours gave a quiet sigh of relief that the eyesore was finally being removed.

Then I took a moment to house the inquisitive chickens who had been waiting for that moment with a certain chicken intensity.

There was, at one point, an intent to observe the differences in the quality, quantity, growth habits and other factors as regards each of the three varieties of heritage barley grain, but the birds - both of the wild and backyard variety - took enough interest in our crop that it would be impossible to know how opportunistic predation affected the outcome.  The point of interest now (well, after making sure the grain is properly cured), will be to see how these grains taste, sprout, and most importantly how easy they are to thresh by hand.

Our 8x4 bed, with the viable grain cut out (I'll let the chickens play cleanup crew for a few days)

Our barley harvest, separated from the stalks (which the rabbits are happily enjoying). From front to back, the barley is Faust, Lompoc and Sheba.  All the barley is inside now, sharing an oscillating fan with me while I do schoolwork on the computer. 

Just Bees

I'm sensing a theme to my postings recently.....but it looks like things might have finally settled down on the bee front (fingers crossed).  The heat has been high over the past week, making manipulating top bars a bit risky (and *that* is how we've accidentally managed our first, small, honey harvest).

Yesterday's inspection was full of import, as it would tell us if we still had 'someone' laying, and what was going on with the 2 queen cells.  The bees have returned to a state of calm since the initial robbery and hive move, and I've been closely approaching the hive and watching them work (and deal with a very reduced entrance) over the past several days with no issues.

The emergency queen cell is still intact, and was covered with worker bees (their numbers enhanced by all of the brood from the Langstroth frame, which has hatched out completely). Careful examination, using a flashlight, showed that there were no eggs or larvae added to the comb this week. Our observations on Monday verified minimal larva that was three days old and more, with no evidence of eggs. Our thorough examination on Wednesday resulted in no visual of a queen, and we saw no evidence of a queen again.  It seems that we made a good call to leave the emergency cell where it was.  The potential swarm queen cell has been abandoned, and I saw no evidence of the larva that had initially caused me concern.

Given the information available, this queen should emerge today or tomorrow, perform her orientation flights, and mate within a week to ten days. She should begin laying within three days after mating.  We could have eggs laid in the brood chamber as early as next week, or as late as 17+ days from now. That 'late' calculation was why we waited so long to see results from our last queen, and then install a purchased queen - and that didn't work out either.

I'm hesitant to risk opening the hive again for the next while, to reduce the risk of killing the queen, or startling her into flight. The bees from our original colony will be nearing the end of their life-span now, and Jen's Langstroth workers are going to be hard-pressed to span the gap between now and the emergence of the new queen's worker brood ten days after being laid (2 1/2 weeks from now at least). A worker bee in summer can live to about a maximum of about 6 weeks. Here's to all the hard work going on inside that wooden hive body! And here's a view of their nearby pollen and nectar sources this morning:

Just in the backyard, there's borage still blooming in the garden, along with honeysuckle, roses, lavender, bergamot, vetch, trefoil (finally found that this annoying weed can feed rabbits *and* bees!), squash, cucumber, coriander, thyme, oregano and lemon balm (which I need to stop harvesting for the rabbits and allow to bloom).  Put a beehive in your yard - it's a good reason not to worry about the dandelions you have growing there.

The Bee Saga Continues

So, we went into the hive today to look for eggs and larva, and to excise the emergency queen cell I had found.  We looked at every frame multiple times, inside the hive body's nooks and crannies every time we moved a frame, and tried to find a queen corpse with a red dot.....or even one without.

 

There were a few bodies, but they were small, and some of the housekeeping bees took advantage of our opening the hive to dispose of the waste. 

 

It didn't look like there were any new eggs, but the workers are tending *another* queen cell, that has a larva hatched and floating in jelly - they're building the cell up around her on the bottom of a frame (swarm queen location).  None of the vacated cells from the previous swarm cell building have larvae or discernible eggs, though workers may have been prepping them for eggs (several workers had their heads inside two of them).

 

I looked everywhere for newly laid eggs, but most of the comb is filled with nectar and capped honey, with some pollen and some larvae that looked to be day three or four and older - there are capped drone cells. The bees are not touching the newer comb we had hoped they would use for brood. I moved that comb immediately beside the Langstroth brood frame, to make it more accessible to the bees tending the brood - there has been no addition of new comb (aside from adhering the existing frames to the sides of the hives).

 

I brought out the knife to cut the emergency cell off the brood comb, and found I could only score it down to the plastic base - there's no way I can 'scoop' this comb off without fatally pinching, ripping or otherwise  damaging the queen inside - and she still  might actually be needed. I made the call to leave the cell in for now.  I will check daily to see if there is any sign of new brood being laid.

Emergency Garlic Harvest

We've been rather preoccupied here these past couple of weeks with our bee drama and rabbit harvest.  I've been watering newly-seeded areas and trying to keep up with daily blueberry picking, and checking my barley and wheat crops to see if they're ready to harvest. Our garlic crop has been low on my list of priorities, having always been fairly low-maintenance and predictable - plant in October, and harvest in late July, repeat.  When I noticed some of the leaves dying down, I assumed that harvest time was approaching.  Going to pull the drip lines off of the beds, and lift a few bulbs to check on their progress, I saw discoloration on the garlic leaves.

The appearance was similar to the rust that I've been fighting on my pear tree, so I went to check the internet for information.  Apparently, these discolorations are caused by garlic rust (puccinia allii), a disease spread by airborne spores, that can kill plants in severe outbreaks, damage the crop, and reduce storage time.  Searching for more information made me feel that I needed to harvest as soon as possible, to reduce the chances of this disease spreading to susceptible alliums, and to mitigate the risk of contaminating other parts of the garden. Strangely, there are shallots in the adjacent bed and they show no sign of disease.

 

After cutting off as many badly- infected leaves as possible, for careful removal and disposal in the garbage, I uprooted the bulbs with a garden fork, and left them exposed for a couple of hours to allow the dirt on the roots to dry out.

 

Some of our larger hard-neck bulbs were quite impressive this year.  The biggest bulbs will be set aside for planting in October - our crop is about half-and-half soft and hard neck garlic.

Many of the soft-neck bulbs were still of a respectable size. It's hard to tell if the fungus affected the crop, since we have always had a rather variable harvest. There's no sign of rot or damage, and only a handful of the bulbs were disappointing.  That's a relief, since we try very hard to produce enough garlic to see us through to the next year's harvest.

 

All 180+ bulbs were moved to a screen in the carport, out of the sun, and will cure there for 2 weeks while I carefully rotate them, removing the remaining dirt and dying leaves. I'll be putting the leaves in the garbage, despite having yard waste removal, because I don't want to allow the spores a chance to infest other plants through poorly finished city compost.  Though my braids of soft-neck garlic bulbs were impressive last year, I will be clipping the stems of all the garlic plants for storage this year, so as not to risk contamination spread by handling the dried leaves. My scissors and pruners will be disinfected after each use.

My research shows that we can still use some of our current stock for planting out in October, which was an immediate concern for me.  Unfortunately,  the spores which affected this year's crop can remain dormant in the soil where the plants grew for years to come - and there, opinions varied widely (between 3 to 30 years).

We use crop rotation in the garden, so I can say with a certainty that these beds had never been used for garlic in the past five seasons.  There may have been some onion crops in that time - who can truly practice a three to five year crop family rotation in a backyard garden?

This year's very wet Spring probably contributed to this problem, though I did not see any evidence of disease while gathering the last of the scapes just a few weeks ago.

Other important points to remember - this disease can overwinter in milder climates like southern BC, where chives and perennial onions may remain as permanent crops - spanning the seasons and not being rotated like an annual plant, these crops can serve as a host for future infection.

Air circulation and sun are important to reduce the spread of the fungus, which needs moisture to thrive.  I was lax in removing weeds growing in the garlic patch, allowing self-seeded borage and sprouted grain seeds from my mulch of straw to stand between the garlic leaves.  I will be more careful in the future.

The rabbit manure that I used to top-dress the beds may have contributed more nitrogen than needed, leaving the garlic with leaves more easily infected by the fungal disease.  Composted mulch only on the garlic beds from now on.

I'll definitely be keeping a closer eye on this important crop in the years to come.  We can't do without our garlic!

To Bee Or Not To Bee

This whole beekeeping experience is making me appreciate bees, beekeepers, and honey much more than before!

Last weekend, we introduced a new queen to our pieced-together hive, having been unable to find any sign of a queen, eggs, or larva anywhere in the hive for more than 17 days.  Then, we had robbing, entrance closings, verifying that the queen had been released from her cage,  more robbing, moving the whole hive, monitoring the state of the hive and worrying about the wellbeing of the queen while the bees seemed much more agitated and wary...

Seven days after we originally 'mixed things up,' I went in to quickly assess the state of the hive, and opened the hive body at the end farthest from the 'loaner' Langstroth brood frame - where the original top bar stores of nectar and honey were being managed.

And found a queen.

But - it was a queen without the red dot of the caged queen we had introduced, and she seemed much larger - with worker bees doing a very picture-perfect job of attending her, fanned out around her. Ironically, it was also the first time I had visually verified the presence of a queen in the hive.

But - she was on the follower board at the front of the hive, and nowhere near cells that she should be laying in.

Unsure of what to do, and with a mass of now very agitated and noisy bees filling the air around me, I carefully placed the board back into the hive body, put the top back on the hive, and walked away to think.

Now, this could be one of the original queens, out of the five cells we identified after our swarming incident - heck, it could even be the queen that came with the package originally, if she had not been ousted from the hive.  Or, it could be the Vancouver Island queen, with the dot having been removed somehow from her back.  The two of us went into the hive the next day, in hopes of identifying one or both of the queens in the frames, so we could decide what was going on.  We found this:

 

 

A capped queen cell

 



Now - follow me here - I did not observe this cell when I went in by myself, so we cannot be certain how long it has been capped. We know for sure that there was no sign of a queen cup on the day we put this frame into the hive.  Research shows that it takes '9 days' for a laid egg to become a capped queen cell, and 16 days total to emerged queen.  If this brood frame went into the hive body ten days ago, it's possible that this cell contained an egg from Jen's queen in her hive, that was less than 3 days old, and that our colony recognized as having the potential to become a queen - so they built up the cell around her. 

Our assumed lost queen may have finally laid an egg in this comb, and then the colony decided to replace her, noting that she was not being very productive (reference the days with no activity in the brood chamber).

Using these same figures, it should not be possible that the Vancouver, caged queen, laid an egg that was developed into a queen cell - simply because there was not enough time between her release and the discovery of an already capped cell.

So, I consulted with Jen, telling her that we had not been able to observe a live queen despite going through the entire hive - they can run from the light and move quite quickly, or hide within the hive body.  My next move (tomorrow when Adrian will be an extra set of steady hands) is to physically remove this queen cell from the comb, and place it in a ventilated container for the next few days. I will have to inspect the hive every day to try and determine if there are any new eggs or larvae visible in the cells - to identify that there is 'someone' still laying.

If there is a drone layer (an infertile worker bee), I should be able to determine that no current larvae are capped as worker cells, and should see only infertile drone capping.  Brood placement, and the presence of more than one egg in a cell is another tell-tale. This is a problem of its own, as it means that there will be no new workers, *and* the drone queen could kill any other queen introduced into the hive.

Tippin, Trimmin And Milkin'

Yesterday, a group of like-minded people got together to learn some essentials for keeping goats and sheep, to mate a few rabbits, and to 'pick' plums. Our host, Jen, gave lots of good pointers and patiently watched as we all tried our best to accomplish new tasks.

Starting in the sheep pen, everyone got a chance to tip, trim, and vaccinate a sheep - to the accompaniment of laughter and expulsions of air as the beasts squirmed out of our grasps.

 

These sheep were a little distrusting of us from the get-go.  I'm sure they knew something was up when they realize how many people were standing in their pen watching them.

 

 

Separating sheep from their herd-mates and moving them into position is a special skill - they're very stubborn, and surprisingly agile. One of the lambs made a break for the door and left the pen while about three feet in the air.

 

Number One.

After all of the sheep had received their shots, and sat for their mani/pedis, we moved on to the goat pen.

 

This was a slightly different setup, using the milking stand to effectively immobilize and distract the goats while we trimmed hooves and vaccinated. Well, as much as you can distract a goat, especially when it runs out of food..... Since we were a bunch of beginners, some of the animals lost patience with us over time.  Having them stand while we worked meant that there were balance issues as well - and I found that the front legs were much easier than the back because of the positioning....

Probably the most anticipated lesson of the day was learning to milk Elizabeth - mother to two little babes on the farm.  We all gave it a whirl, then watched somewhat abashed while Jen showed us how to milk quickly with two hands in a continuous action. There may be some room for improvement!

 

The babies were adorable.

 

We finished off the chores by gathering plums from a very overgrown tree absolutely laden with fruit.  The easiest way to get at that fruit, was to cut down some of the branches out of reach - the tree will either receive a severe pruning in the near future, or be removed to make way for an expanding vegetable garden.

Just before I left, Jen helped me collect several potentially fertile eggs from her flock's nesting boxes.  Celine is broody again, and if she has the perseverance to sit for another 20 days or so, we might have some chicks hatching in our backyard the first weekend of August.

Gypsy and Notch (Jen's Champagne bucks) were mated to Chun Li and Sakura, so we should also be seeing some cross-bred kits in 30-32 days.

A very busy, educational, and enjoyable day. Thanks Jen!

Strawberries, Blueberries and Huckleberries

Technically, the month for strawberries has passed in the garden - though there are a few lagging behind to ripen as the season continues.  If we're lucky, and the heat-wave subsides, these 'everbearing' plants will flower again (maybe two more times), and we will enjoy more fruit in the future.  For the time being, our attentions have turned to the blueberries which have been ripening since the beginning of July.  We try to pick the ripe berries at least once a day from our established bushes, to discourage predation by all of the birds looking for a tasty treat.  I just scared off several Stellar Jays having brunch... By the end of the season, we will be so tired of these daily pickings that the time will come to just let the birds have a little feast.  We still treat Nugget to a few of her favourite tidbits - our chicken loves her blueberries, and will jump to carefully nip them from between our fingers.

Yesterday morning, I went out to one of my favourite picking spots to hunt for wild huckleberries.  They're much harder to pick, averaging roughly 1/2 hour of picking for each 1/2 pint of jam that I make, but it's become a bit of a tradition for me.

 

Several times throughout the day, I checked on the hive to make sure that there was no sign of the robber bees - we physically moved the hive after the robbers returned the second day after they found the hive. The distance of a mere 10 feet and some tall plantings seems to have caused enough confusion to discourage predation. Two of the three entrance holes are blocked, and will stay that way in the near future.  I've observed guard bees pacing in and out of the remaining entrance, wary of intruders. We will do a hive inspection on Sunday to verify if our new queen is laying, and if the brood from Jen's hive has begun to emerge.  

 

In the garden, the barley, shallots and garlic are nearly ready for harvest. We had the last of our first -sown lettuce greens with dinner last night, and had blueberries with a bit of ice cream to top off our meal.  The tomatoes are in bloom, but I have yet to see any fruit development (very late this year). Cucumbers and zucchini are beginning to form, as well as the fruits on our winter squash vines.  The pole and bush beans have peaked in their growth, and are starting to set flowers for pollination. More pole beans are just breaking the ground to replace the pea plants I pulled on the weekend. Cilantro plants are busy flowering, so it looks like we will have a good crop of coriander seed - and I have successive plantings of the herb, so we are still enjoying fresh salsa, even if the tomatoes are from the store. The heat caused the oriental greens to bolt, and I've decided to let the planting essentially re-seed itself in place for the cooler months.  The first planting of basil is hitting a foot in height, and I should be harvesting this weekend to make basil/almond pesto (it keeps wonderfully in the freezer). Also on the to-do list is using up some of the parsley for home-made tabouli. 

 

While I was giving some of our plants a bit of extra water, this dragonfly fearlessly landed a foot away from me, and stayed to let me take pictures.

 

Robbery in Progress

I went outside today to check on the chickens and rabbits in the hot afternoon, and went to investigate when I heard buzzing from the direction of the hive (you don't normally hear them, unless you've got the top open).  At first glance, it looked like there was a massive backup at the entrance holes, but knowing that our colony is currently fairly small, and knowing that there have been fewer numbers heading out to forage over the past few days, I took a closer look.  What I saw was a few larger bees wrestling at the entrance holes with some of our girls. The foreigners were trying to get in, while their compatriots hovered nearby, waiting for their chance to zip past the bees guarding the entrance.  In large part, our foraging Carnolians seemed to be ignoring the interlopers, trying to get around them and continue about their business. I'm not sure how many 'guard' bees are at work in the hive these days with their limited numbers.

I plugged the holes with twigs as my first reaction - trying to limit the amount of movement in and out of the hive.  The robbers stayed close by, and I ran to get my veil and gloves, while dialing my beekeeping friend.  You can see the robbers below - the much larger bees with long, dark abdomens were considerably bigger that our fuzzy little girls.

Veil and gloves on, I tried to secure the entrances to allow for passage of our smaller bees, while limiting how many of the robbers could get in - all of the bees ignored me.  I was hoping that blocking the passages would make it easier for the colony to fight back and prevent ingress.  The sheer numbers of robbers was disconcerting, and I had no idea what was happening inside the hive (robbers will kill workers and even the queen of a hive they are stealing from).  I couldn't open the hive to observe, since that would only allow more robbers a chance to get in, but could see that the queen cage was resting on the floor of the hive, possibly knocked off during the struggle inside. The cage was dutifully being attended from outside by 10 or more worker bees, doing their job regardless of the situation.  Twice while I watched and considered my options, the sheer volume of robbers trying to force their way in dislodged the smaller sticks I was using to reduce the space. 

I decided this wasn't going to be pretty, headed back to the workshop, grabbed the staple gun, and cut myself a piece of screening material.  I quickly removed the sticks, and secured the screen over all three holes, stapling it down to prevent any movement at all. Robbers were trapped inside, and our foragers were unable to return home.

I checked back on the hive at intervals, and found that the robbers had lost interest about 45 minutes after I placed the screen - now there were about 30 of our bees desperately trying to get out of the hive, bunched up under the fabric.  I pulled half of the screening off, freeing one entryway completely, while making it difficult to access the second entrance.  Several of our girls took up position at the edge of the open hole, fanning pheromones, I assume, to tell their foraging sisters that they could now access the hive.

Relieved and worried, I opened the hive to access the queen's cage - and found her unharmed and alive, covered in a protective coating of bees.  The candy plug is almost gone, and I feel fairly confident that the hive has accepted her and was protecting her during the invasion.

I'll keep a close eye on the hive tomorrow - and probably for several days!

Of Bees and Bunnies

Yesterday, we processed our two recent litters of rabbits, while taking some time to show friends how to put down a rabbit as quickly and humanely as possible, and what comes after.  My farming/beekeeping/font of knowledge friend Jen dropped by, having run to the post office to pick up a queen bee that had been mailed overnight from Vancouver Island, and shared some personal tips and tricks about rabbit butchering.  All of us chatted and had a few positive hours of preparing home-grown meat for the table. I think everyone learned a thing or two!

I took a moment to discuss with Jen how we had determined that we no longer had a queen in our hive, and that our colony was likely doomed - knowing that the current bees would die off with no replacements being reared.

A few minutes after cleaning up after ourselves that evening, I received a call letting me know that the replacement queen from the Island was available, since the 'queenless' hive she had been meant for in Jen's bee yard had managed to produce their own queen after all, and things were ticking along.

Adrian and I quickly decided to ask for the queen - and a little bit of help as well. 

So, this morning, Jen came over with the queen in a little cage the size of a tic tac container (shipped via Canada Post Expresspost), and a frame of capped brood from one of her Langstroth hives.....

We shifted all of the top bars over, to make as much room as we could at one end of the hive, and placed the wood pieces which previously held the sugar syrup feeder, so we had a bit of a platform.

 

 

Jen had brushed as many bees off of a brood frame as she could, and brought the frame over in a pillow case for transport. Unfortunately for the bees that hitched a ride, our colony identified and killed them as intruders. It was a bit gruesome to watch.

 

Removing two of the built up top bars gave us just enough room to squeak the Langstroth frame in on an angle, and allow it to remain upright. 

The removed top bars, started with new, unused comb, went on either side of the foreign brood, in an attempt to insulate the brood, and to give a bit more security - and possibly to lend a reassuring, familiar scent to the remainder of our colony.



The queen was duct-taped to one side of the brood from Jen's hive, and the second top bar placed in front of her to provide warmth and security, while the bees from our top bar learn to recognize her scent and release her from her cage by eating the candy cap at one end.

We covered this decidedly unconventional compromise with a burlap sack, before putting the lid back on the hive, and this evening I will go in to (hopefully) verify that 1. Our bees have not killed the new queen, and 2. That they are congregating around her protectively and feeding her while they accept her leadership.

 

Thank you Jen, and here's hoping that our emergency measures help our hive to regain its lost numbers.

Gooseberry Shuffle

We have planted quite a few berry bushes on our property, and over the years have dealt with several insect pests that create various problems for our harvests (aphids, I'm looking at you!)

This year, despite the promise of a huge gooseberry harvest, I lost out to (what I believe I have identified as) Currant Fruit Fly.  The life cycle of this pest involves laying eggs inside the emerging fruit, to grow, then cause the early spoilage of the fruit - which drops to the ground where they can pupate.  Sounds lovely, doesn't it? 

The infestation isn't 100%, but anyone who has harvested these berries from thorny, scratchy plants, and then spent time topping and tailing the fruit for baking or jam making can tell you that it's frustrating enough to throw in the towel at the sign of an obvious battle lost.  To mitigate the problem in the future, I pulled three of my plants and re-planted them far apart from one another in the front yard of our property.  This means that the remaining currant bushes (which are in the same family), have better air flow, and the ground around them is more open to the weather.

Before moving the plants, I harvested and destroyed the remaining fruit (oh, the waste!), and then took time to root some cuttings for future plantings, or to share with friends and neighbours. The ribes family are quite happy to put out roots, and I like to help them along with a little dash of rooting hormone, and a splash of homemade manure tea.

Of Bees and Blueberries

It's been 18 days since we observed a swarm of bees that had departed from the hive, and there is no sign of new life in the brood chamber.  There is a lot of nectar being stored, but it appears that the queen may have been lost in the days of bad weather we had during the time of her mating flights.  Even allowing for 10 days before she managed to successfully mate, and 3 days before beginning to lay (the maximum I've found reference to), we should have been able to visually verify larvae within the brood area by now.

The remaining workers and drones are preparing stores, but I have a sad feeling that there will be no bees left to benefit from their work this winter.

On an up note, we have been enjoying the first blueberries of the season this week.