July 7, 2013…Spring veggies harvested, soil spaded and leveled, drip watering in place, this bed is ready to plant our winter garden.
When we planted turnips, lettuce and kale in July for our winter garden little did we know we were planting for the bees as well as ourselves.
July 28, 2013…turnips are growing nicely in the center, lettuce and kale are on the sides. Deer netting over pvc hoops.
January 16, 2014…We had eaten most of the turnips and just left a few to go to seed. We never thought the bees would be enjoying them in mid January. What a welcome surprise.
February 9, 2014…My apologies for posting such a fuzzy picture of a bee on the catkins,but it was rather high up. I wanted to show where the pollen was coming from that is going into my log hive.
February 9, 2014…Many colors of pollen can be seen entering the hive. In the video you can see the bright yellow pollen from turnip flowers. It’s possible this shot is from the pussy willows that are just starting to blossom. The darker orange might be from early gorse.
February 10, 2014…Yellow turnip flowers have been flowering since mid January. Pussy willows are starting to blossom already. Second bed is producing greens for our salads. We can eat them 15 minutes after they are picked…can’t get much fresher than that. We cover them with plastic film (partially visible on far side) on nights of sub freezing temps.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
Oh my gosh, I love the log hive in the video. Can’t wait to show my husband that! What a nice video. My relaxation for the day:)
The log hive has been our unique point of interest for almost two years. We love to walk out to the garden to see what the bees are doing. Mind you we don’t open it, rob honey, or hang mite killers in it. We just want to provide a place for the bees to live and find nourishment from the many flowers we grow in a poison-free environment. Our reward is LOTS of videos (that are different from anywhere else)
Hi
I too have a log hive that is full to bursting with bees even now! I don’t think they stopped all winter & popped out whenever there was a break in the weather to forage on the mahonia & viburnums. They seem to love it in there & wonder if it’s the thickness of the walls & the fact that it’s round.
I too feel it to be a great source of joy & also plant poison free stuff, encouraging neighbours to do the same.
I am so looking forward to a swarm from this colony as it’s a vigourous, lively bunch o bees in there & I have a log waiting to house the next guests.
Do you have any pictures on your blog? I’d love to see it.
I’ve always admired your raised beds and now that Gosia has changed her mind about having a brick kitchen floor, in favour of stone, I have a couple of thousand bricks that I think I’ll put to use making some more permanent beds. Great video and I’m begging to warm to the music, I almost thought your voices were part of the piece until I noticed the caption 🙂
I admire your garden and bees. I would never plant pussy willow so close to my house as I am terribly allergic to the pollen. I would also love to have a bee hive but my property is too small. Perhaps the next place I will have enough property for bees.
I’ve heard more experienced beekeepers say if you eat the honey of something you’re allergic to, it will cure the allergy. In other words get some honey from the pussy willows. I’ve never tried it, so don’t blame me if it doesn’t work. 🙂
I too have heard that ingesting honey from something that you are allergic to is supposed to help. Since I am allergic to almost anything that flowers, I have not yet found eating honey to cure my allergies. It is a shame too because I eat a lot of honey.
Great video, I love your yellow faced bumblebee, we don’t get those over here. I accidentally let my sprouts go to seed last year, as I was keeping them in the ground to feed gradually to my neighbours chickens. The bees loved their yellow flowers. You don’t here about bees liking turnip or sprout flowers as usually they don’t flower! Our willow, apricot and plum tree are in flower but it is too cold and rainy for them to attract the bees. You only see a few brave bees when there is a sunny spell. I often wonder about the different coloured pollen, there are so many shades of yellow. I have even seen a bee with two colours of pollen where they must have changed what flower they were gathering from.
I’m hoping you don’t get any really cold weather so your fruit trees will not be harmed.
Two colors of pollen? Now that would make a unique shot. I’ll keep an eye out, but I doubt if that happens very often.
I just visited your bee web site…you’ve got all sorts of solitary bees. Can I ask you how you came know them? Did you study them in school? I’m just asking because I know there are different bees around here, but I wouldn’t have any idea of how to identify them without shooting several pictures and asking people.
I know very little about solitary bees but I am trying to learn – thus my blog, I’m searching for help. I am just looking and capturing the bees on camera and then trying to identify them. One way to identify the genera is to get a good shot of their wing venation pattern – easier said than done- this is a good way to start the identification. I have got some identification keys of some of the genera but these are in French – a further complication as the “bee bits” have slightly different names.:)
Inspiring…first step will be to get good photos. Thanks.
What a great post, thanks for sharing.
Thank you. You are my 100th follower!
I feel honored to be number 100…Thanks!
The first 100 is probably the hardest.