While I was looking over all the wind damaged trees, a City of Bandon ‘bucket’ truck drove by, turned around, and stopped. “Looks like you could use some help.” Kevin took care of the leaning eucalyptus tree while Mark started cutting the big one.
Thank you Mark and Kevin and the City of Bandon utility crew.
That left the bare straight part and the stump. I figured we could wait for the weekend, but my wife let it be known that it had to be removed ASAP. “The fence is open and Bailey (our old and very deaf dog) could get hit by a car.”
A rented log splitter did most of the work with the two of us wrestling the sawn rounds onto the splitting plate.
I love it when the splitter pops the ’round’ all the way through, but it doesn’t happen often enough.
Load after load gets carried away with our DR Power Wagon. It will carry 800 pounds (362 kg) of anything, but it’s fossil fueled. We want to replace it with a battery-powered version. If anyone has a suggestion, please comment. Cool hat, Sue.
That stump was stubborn, but no match for the two of us, even though we’re in our 70’s.
Returning from our morning walk, my wife turns to me, “Pat, the field is looking seedy. Should we mow it?” “Yeah, let’s mow it,” I say, wondering if there’s enough gas. Hmmm, I think I’ll try the new EGO battery mower to see if it’ll work on the thicker grass. To my surprise it works well.
July 4th…Independence Day. Mowing thick grass with the EGO cordless electric mower. I’m not producing carbon emissions. I’M INDEPENDENT OF FOSSIL FUEL.
We usually mow the field with the big DR Brush cutter. It’s about 11 hp and uses quite a bit of gas, so I was very impressed that the EGO cordless mower could handle this thicker and taller grass.
Leave some “No Mow Zones” for the bees. Here’s some healsall plants and some yellow Bird’s Foot Trefoil.
I left some tall grass too, for the deer. I know, I know, you’re not supposed to feed the deer, but there are so many juicy temptations in the garden that they feasted on last year. In a way, I am thanking the deer for not jumping the new deer fence into the garden. Maybe it’s more of a distraction, but so far it works. We’ve been picking up the “June drop” apples along with the mountains of ripe plums and scattering them in an area where we can see them eat (outside the garden, of course.)
Time to recharge. I use solar power.
Solar power plug installed 1 January 2013 (into my press room) Before that, I used a long extension cord from the panels through the shop window. 🙂
My wife won’t let me trim the flowers around the solar panels, but if they start casting shadows, there’s gonna be trouble! 🙂
EGO’s 56 volt battery RULES!!!
We fill several wheelbarrow loads. What are we using the grass clippings for, you ask? For mulch in the garden. We are coming into the dry season. We’re on a shallow well, so we try to conserve on water usage. Mulch cuts down on the need for water. I scatter the lawn clippings out in the sun. I’ll turn them tomorrow morning. It only takes a couple of sunny days to dry them out enough. (I’ve learned my lesson. Years ago I used fresh lawn clippings over newly planted potatoes. I couldn’t figure out why no potatoes were growing. Pulling up the mulch, I realized the grass had burned off the sprouts.)
After letting grass clippings dry for a couple of hot days, it’s ready to go.
Mulch in squash, lettuce and bean bed.
Barrels benefit from using mulch.
Poles beans growing nicely with drip watering pvc and lots of mulch.
With the advances in battery technology, it’s exciting to be able to do more and more things without using fossil fuels. If it’s true what most scientists are saying, then our grandchildren are facing a future of mass starvation, cities underwater, and out of control wildfires. With that being a possibility, we are very willing to reduce our carbon emissions as much as possible.
It took about six months for Seth to build his Alan Scott wood-fired bread oven and the shop that serves as his kitchen. My daily walks would take me by his place. I watched as he built the roof. It was meticulously built on the ground with beautiful jointing. I wondered how he was going to lift it up to the top. One day, as we walked past, there it was connected to the uprights. I asked him how he got it up there. His reply…”one piece at a time.” “I built it on the ground to make sure it was right.”
The small fire was lit on Sunday, the day before ‘bread day.’ Enough heat is stored in the dome to bake 125 to 130 loaves of bread the next day.
Seth scores the dough so moisture will be released and enable the bread to ‘bloom.’
When done, the bread goes onto the cooling rack.
I had breakfast and returned to see the bread all sorted for deliveries.
At about 9:30 am, fresh bread gets delivered by bicycle to the natural foods store.
Do you ever wonder what to do with old table cloths, jeans, or scraps of material? Recycle them into a very usable rag rug.
First cut the material into strips of cloth about 2.5 inches (6.35 cm) by any length. Use scraps of equal thickness so the rug will be all the same thickness.
Then fold the edges in !/4 inch, (6.35 mm)
Fold that in half to one inch (2.54 cm)
Sew the edges and braid three strands of differing lengths.
Stitch the braids together to form the size of rug you desire. We have used cotton thread in the past but are now trying fishing monofilament. Stitch on the back side of rug only, so it won’t show.
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.
Our bicycles are nothing fancy, but they work to get us to the grocery store or post office, a distance of about three miles round trip.
Riding a bicycle for errands is a “win, win, win!” We don’t pollute, we don’t use gasoline, and we get some exercise…gets the cardiovascular circulation going. Of course we use the bicycle to get groceries and other items like crab shells and coffee grounds, too. Occasionally I’ll even deliver print jobs from a printer I know. A few years ago someone on NPR said he was trying to cut down on his carbon footprint by not driving at least one day a week. We thought that was a great idea, so in 2006 we set out to get at least 51 days without using a car.
The following are the totals of “Car-free days” per year and rainfall totals.
2013 149/365=40.8% Total rainfall 29.5 inches (749 mm) Avg. rainfall 64.57 inches. (Footnote: 2013 is driest year on record)
2014 183/365=50%. HOORAY!! 50% Car-free days, and that’s with 18″ more rainfall this year. Total rainfall is 47.58 inches (1233 mm) Avg. rainfall is 64.57 inches.
2015 180/365=49.3%. I couldn’t quite get my 50% car-free days. Rainfall for 2015 is 44.89 inches (1140 mm)
As you can see 2011 was our best year at 50.1%. That works out to be 3.5 car-free days a week. Rainfall was comparatively low that year, so it was easier to get around. The next year I started beekeeping so the numbers have dropped a bit since I started attending bee meetings, hanging bait hives, and chasing down swarms.
I’m proud of my home-made bicycle sign. I figure if I can make drivers smile, they won’t run over me. I’ve gotten many comments on this sign, but the best one was from a man who said he dialed the number and his wife answered. 🙂
Lumber loaded on bicycle trailer, barely clears ground.
I can’t remember what this lumber was for, but my little Burley Flat Bed trailer was able to get it (and me) home in one piece.
The point of car-free days is to try to limit our carbon footprint. We live in a small town so it’s easy for us to bicycle. If we lived in a large city with public transportation, we would use it. We feel that it’s important to cut down on our energy usage (and pollution) as much as possible.
This was brought to my attention by Emily Heath, a fellow beekeeper in Great Britain whom I follow. George Menbiot states the situation much better than I. (I’m a printer, not a writer)
Think about this the next time you are tempted to buy that useless gift.
Before you leave the house to go shopping, take a re-usable cloth bag. Don’t buy plastic gifts that will end up in the garbage in a few days. RECYCLE AND RE-USE as much as possible.
Ah humans. So superior to the Mother Earth which puts up with us.
Photographer Chris Jordan is doing a fantastic work on Midway Island in the Pacific. It’s so easy to consume something in a plastic container, throw it in the trash can, put it out for collection, and COMPLETELY FORGET ABOUT IT FOR FOREVER.
Meanwhile, this plastic can’t be easily disposed of. So it’s thrown in the ocean by bad businesses and governments and collects mainly in the Pacific where it is creating quite a disgusting and embarrassing problem. We should be very embarrassed. We should be apologizing profusely. But who we are really hurting are animals who can’t call out to us, who can’t hurt us, who we don’t even think about EVER.
Please do your part. RECYCLE and REUSE when you have to buy plastic, but do NOT buy PLASTIC if not necessary!!
Vernon’s Perone hive, showing the brood box (24 inches in length, width and depth), one super and the roof. Construction was of Douglas Fir with the exterior thin-coated with linseed oil. Materials cost about $140 including the concrete footed mounting frame and a sheet of galvanized metal for the roof.
When my first Warre hive was threatening to swarm, I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t want any more hives but I wanted to give it to someone who would really appreciate a prime swarm. I found out about Vernon through the new bee keeping network of Oregon South Coast Beekeepers Association…he had just built a Perone hive. He wanted a swarm rather than package bees. That was me a year ago. The bees swarmed on Mother’s Day, May 12, 2013. We handed him a bucket of bees a day later, but I didn’t want to leave it at that, I had never seen a Perone hive before and wanted to see how big it was…I wanted to make sure our bees had a good home.
He sent me these photos and his details…
The plans I used to construct my hive are on-line:
The authors are from Chile so the useful dimensions are in metric. Perone insists that the internal dimensions of the brood box be 57 X 57 X 57cm, which is 184.5 liters. Each of his supers is 32.5 liters. Whenever I converted to English units I adjusted the measurements slightly for convenience. My brood box is built of 1 X 6 inch lumber, which of course actually measures 3/4 X 5 1/2 inches.
Stacking 4 boards on edge gave me a brood box 22 inches in height (not including the floor which is 3/4 inch thick). The outside dimensions for length and width were 24 X 24 inches, so the interior dimensions were 22 1/2 X 22 1/2 inches
Scrap lumber sticks placed inside the brood chamber to help support the expected massive comb loads.
The height of my supers is 4 1/2 inches rather than the 4 inches recommended by Perone. I measured my bars in metric (24 cm height and width, which is about 15/16 inches) and cut them on a circular saw from 2 inch cross-section stock.
There were 49 bars: 17 bars for the brood comb spaced 9mm apart, and 16 bars each for the two supers, spaced 10 mm apart.
Perone insists that the brood comb bars be 9mm apart because he feels this helps the bees maintain optimal brood comb temperature to fight infestations. Also, that spacing is preferred by the queen, so an excluder isn’t needed to keep her in the brood box.
Note the lower entry and 2 inch deep landing strip. The metal strip above the entry is a mouse guard. The upper landing strip is also attached to the brood box.
My gabled roof has a 5 1/2 inch peak and the ridge is 31 1/2 inches long. The roofing is made from 1 x 6 inch boards and is covered by galvanized sheet metal.
Side view of the hive just after the swarm dump. Everyone’s confused!
It wasn’t long before scouts returned and started their waggle-dance.
I asked Vernon if he would consider shooting a video of the bees…
This video was shot on May 23rd about 9 days after installation.
Some updates below…
On Aug 3, 2013, at 10:50 PM, Vernon Strength <eurekawriters@yahoo.com> wrote:
Today I removed the super from my Perone hive and had a chance to look down through the brood box grid bars. The attached photo shows that the bees have been building weird comb: rather small, all in the southeast corner, cross-combed to the extreme, and the comb cells between the bars are oriented “up.” After almost three months the population of the hive seems about the same as the original swarm.
Obviously, my inclusion of a super from the beginning was a dumb idea. The colony isn’t going to come close to filling their brood box by winter, much less a super. My only defense is that I believed the South American beekeepers’ claims of rapid proliferation in the first few months.
Now the roof lid is directly over the brood box bars, almost touching them, so maybe the bees won’t be able to move over the top of the bars so easily to produce vertically-oriented brood cells. That might reduced cross-combing, too. Still, it’s already August and I don’t think there is time before winter for the bees to change their ways and build enough aligned combs towards the center of the grid. They will have a hard time increasing their numbers significantly in their present nest, which may also be hard for them to heat in winter. I can’t think of anything else to do now that I’ve removed the super. Unless you have any suggestions I’ll follow the Perone philosophy and let the bees figure it out.
Vernon
On Aug 26, 2013, at 12:42 AM, Vernon Strength <eurekawriters@yahoo.com> wrote:
The population of the Perone hive colony seems to have increased significantly in the last few days, based on the unprecedented numbers entering and leaving the hive entryway. Maybe they’ve increased their numbers for a last big food gathering push before winter. It’s still a mystery what they are foraging on; they still fly straight up and over some big trees and disappear when they leave the hive, and they return from the same direction. Lots of bumblebees have foraged around my house, but zero honeybees.
Last time I gave you an update I was concerned that there was so much cross-combing, and the comb was smaller than I’d expected. It appears that the oddball comb has produced lots of brood though, the comb is ugly but functional, so I’m going to follow the Perone approach and leave the bees to gather their own supplies. If this colony doesn’t make it through the winter I’m going to feel like a murderer.
I’ve started building another Perone hive using lessons learned from this first one. The main difference is a 11in X 16.5in observation window. I’m going to mount the new hive on the same platform with the first one, but probably the entry will face in the opposite direction so the bees won’t get confused about which entry to use.
Ciao,
Vernon
November 26, 2013…I took my new & improved Perone hive to the beekeeper’s meeting in Gold Beach last Thursday and got a lot of interest. In fact, Del is thinking of using something similar while he’s in the Peace Corps. The new version has two large picture windows so I won’t be completely in the dark about activities inside the hive the way I am now. The day-before-yesterday I checked the first hive when the weather was damp and in the low-to-mid 50’s and there were no signs of life. I put my ear to the side wall but could hear nothing, so I lightly rapped it with my knuckles and three bees came out to see what was going on. I concluded that the hive was simply hunkered down inside due to foul weather. Really, I’m not sure what the temperature was outside, though I have two thermometers that weren’t cheap. It’s nearly impossible to find a mercury thermometer anymore: The alcohol substitutes are safe but inaccurate. When I compare thermometers at a store they always show different readings (i.e., two different thermometers of the same make & model may have readings over 5 degrees apart). The Italian bees we are keeping are apparently notorious for taking the day off when it’s coolish outside. My friend Steve Sottong of Eureka recovered a swarm he claims was about 3X the volume of mine. His bees are little and black, probably the species native to Great Britain, and they forage when it’s in the high 40’s.
Del suggested again that I feed my bees. His idea had some appeal: Hang a Christmas candy cane from a top bar using a string or thin flexible wire. Of course, once I do that I no longer have a “pure” Perone experiment going, so I’m torn. Maybe the foragers are still finding nectar. Lots of ivy grows around my neighborhood, and some weed flowers still persist.
November 28, 2013…Well, my (inaccurate) thermometer reads 61 damp degrees and my foragers are out in moderate numbers, moving verrrry slowwwly. The bees appear healthy so I’m attributing their lethargy to the cool moist weather and perhaps advanced age. I can tell the bees I’m seeing are all experienced veterans because they approach the small entryway so accurately. The inexperienced foragers I observed in mid-summer came in crazy-fast and usually crash-landed on the runway, sometimes banging their heads against the hive walls or landing on other bees. Anyway, nothing worrisome to report regarding the colony.
Vernon
January 24, 2014…The Perone bees are busy foraging this morning, taking advantage of the unseasonable 64 degree F. (17.7 C) temperature. I’ve still never fed them. Hopefully they are finding nectar someplace (the myrtle trues seem to have buds).
Vernon
Solarbeez says…Hi Vernon, I’m so glad you decided not to feed. I’ve been reading Michael Bush’s book, “The Practical Beekeeper.” He talks about the pH of the hive. When you feed sugar, it raises the pH of the hive which makes it more susceptible to nosema.
The only hive I’m feeding is the Warre, but I’m going to discontinue that. I never took any honey, but I CAVED IN to the temptation to feed them dry sugar. The other two hives are not getting fed and they seem to be fine.
Here’s another Michael Bush quote you won’t see anywhere else… On Page 435…
“Pathogens?
Even some seemingly pathogenic organisms such as Aspergillus fumigatus which causes stonebrood, supplants worse pathogens, in this case Nosema. Or Ascosphaera apis which causes Chalkbrood but prevents European Foulbrood.”
Thanks for the update.
Pat
January 26, 2014…The Perone bees are collecting from a different pollen source today, a golden yellow variety.
January 26, 2014…The only flowers I see in my yard are on these myrtle trees, which locals also call pepperwoods or bays. Of course, my bees never forage around my yard so I don’t know their actual pollen source.
February 10, 2014…Vernon says, “After a few days of rain the foragers are again out in force, and they are collecting more golden-yellow pollen than ever. This winter has been so warm and dry I’m not sure the Perone hive is getting an adequate test.”
Vernon’s entries:
February 19, 2014…Drove to Crescent City this afternoon and Queen Anne’s Lace weeds were blooming all along the road.
February 22, 2014…The foragers are out today in about the same numbers I saw during the summer. It’s likely the colony considers that Spring has arrived. A few dead or dying workers were on the ground below the entrance, probably over-winter bees that have been replaced by the next generation. I believe the queen started laying during the mid-January warm spell. About 20% of the foragers are bringing back golden-yellow pollen, which Carla believes comes from Myrtle trees. Odd that our west coast winter has been so mild while the east coast has been frigid and stormy.
March 27, 2014…
I’m hoping to finish my second Perone hive this weekend. Will send photos when I do. I also want to write a summary of my conclusions after taking a Perone hive through the winter without feeding or treating or helping them in any way. My friend Steve in Eureka lost 5 of his 6 Langs, including the one that housed the huge swarm I wrote you about (small, cold-adapted black bees from northern Europe). He’s looking into setting up a horizontal hive.
Of course I’m in need of a swarm. Please let me know if you hear of one available.
Vernon
March 27, 2014…Pat’s reply
My congratulations on getting through the winter without feeding or treating. I welcome your conclusions on that. I understand your second hive will have an observation window. You’re going to love it.
My log hive has bees that are fanning. I think they might be getting crowded. Last year the first swarm was on a hot 80˙F day on March 31. If the weather settles down, that could happen again this year. The first swarm has been promised away for a swarm swap. I’m debating whether to keep it (if that person’s hive isn’t ready) or give it away to try to get different genetics. I’m hoping my other log hive will attract a swarm without me interfering.
If Vernon sends photos, I will post them here.
April 26, 2014 Lessons Learned
Last May I introduced a swarm of moderate size into a Perone mk2 hive. The colony survived the winter and appears to be thriving. Since the hive has no observation windows I infer colony condition by watching the numbers and behaviors of individuals who venture out.
The hive is located in mixed woodlands on the northern California coast, USDA plant hardiness zone 9b. Winter was warmer than usual this year, with only one hard freeze. While it may be argued that survival through a mild winter isn’t an adequate test of the Perone design and philosophy, it remains that beekeepers in my area with carefully-tended Langstroth hives reported roughly the same high losses this year as previously.
Hopefully the success of my hive will encourage others to try Perone hives. I strictly followed the Perone approach of benign neglect.
I never fed my bees. They were industrious foragers and didn’t appear to need any sugar water. At times it was difficult to resist feeding, because experienced beekeepers I respect advised me in the strongest terms to either feed my bees or watch them die. They cited seasonal stoppages of nectar flows (while flowers were in bloom) and pollen production (when pollen.com warned allergy sufferers in my area of high pollen counts). Swarms were represented as particularly vulnerable to starvation. My bees proved the experts wrong. Apparently feeding is so strongly entrenched in our beekeeping culture that it will persist superstitiosly no matter what.
Hive inspections. I never opened my hive to check the condition of the comb. Typically beekeepers open their hives at least monthly to check for diseases, monitor comb development, and discourage swarming.
Disease treatment: I never observed disease syptoms in my Perone bees. Of course they were given the “preventative medicine” of a Perone hive. The design of the Perone hive discourages disease through a more natural, healthful, undisturbed environment, and the relatively large populations of Perone colonies encourage thorough hygiene and robust reactions to parasite infestation. However, I do kill every yellowjacket I see.
Monitoring comb development: The only apparent benefit of monitoring comb is that it’s fascinating for the beekeeper. The removeable frames or top bars of more traditional hives encourage maniputation of comb positions. For example, one of my colleagues found that some of his Langstroth hives were “honey bound.” These hives had a few brood frames located between frames of mostly honey, which he said inhibited the development of more brood. In response he moved the honey frames to outside positions to encourage more brood nearer the center. My colleagues often switch frames between hives. For example, if a hive is producing more brood and less honey than what is considered optimal a honey frame is brought in from another hive and exchanged for an “excess” brood frame.
Drone cells and queen cells are often destroyed, as they consider worthless. Most destroy the “swarm cells” of developing queens to avoid population reduction in their hives due to swarming. Many “re-queen” (killed the queen and introduced a new one) when brood development doesn’t meet their expectations.
These are the same beekeepers who report 30-40% losses or worse over the winter and attribute the survival of my colony to luck. I never inspected the comb in my Perone hive—for all I know it may be “honey bound” and full of drone and swarm cells—but it seems to be working.
The value of swarms: The swarm introduced into my Perone hive appeared very organized from the beginning. Foragers quickly set out in all directions, returned in an excited state, and congregated for waggle-dancing on the landing platform in front of the hive entry. After the first day the foragers I observed always left my yard and returned from the same direction. From this I infer that the foragers quickly found an optimal feeding area and returned to it regularly thereafter.
Last week I introduced a 3 pound package of purchased bees into a second Perone hive. So far these bees appear disorganized compared to the swarm. It took several hours for the package bees introduced inside the hive to discover and regularly use the single entryway, compared to about 20 minutes for the swarm. And I never saw the package bees waggle dance. Now, after a week, the foragers continue to meander around, each in her own direction, without urgency.
My theory is that a swarm is more specialized to establish a new colony than most beekeepers appreciate. The swarm population seems to be made up of an appropriate number of workers specialized to perform each of the needed functions. It’s known that individuals carry enough supplies in their bodies to begin the processes. By contrast, package bees are shaken off frames pulled from established hives without regard for the functions the workers are currently performing. Then they are packaged with an unfamiliar queen and shipped off with some syrup to eat. What an awful start for a colony! In this first week I’ve observed a disturbing number of dead bees from the package bee colony.
Other hive maintenance. My hive is mounted on concrete foundation blocks that settled over the winter. The hive is no longer level. After some consideration I decided not to level the hive. There are no rigid frames in a Perone hive, so the bees are free to angle their comb building to adjust for settling. Returning the hive back to level would require the bees to readjust.
This is how the garden looked in August 1997. All those beautiful raised beds are now rotting into the ground after 16 years and need to be replaced.
Trex-built raised bed 5-5-13 Don’t look at the background…it’s messy. I’m linear. I can only work on one bed at a time!
We built most of our raised beds in 1996 and ’97. The lumber came from a small sawmill using white cedar that had been passed over by the big timber companies. It was sawn to a full 2 x 10 x 16′ (5.08 cm x 25.4 cm x 4.87 m) It was beautiful wood. We had less personal time then but more energy…lots more. As good as that wood was, it still rots when in contact with the soil. So after 17 years all those 16 beds have got to be replaced. We found this decking material on close-out. It’s not cheap but is supposed to outlast wood. It’s a little wobbly so I had to set the corners in concrete, but if it outlasts wood, it’ll be worth it. We’re trying to replace ONE raised bed a year now. The green one was built last year out of old siding…much cheaper than this one, but won’t last as long.
Soil leveled, drip water grid laid out, tires centered over drip holes. The tires extend the warm temps into the cool evening.
Hoops added with 1 x2x 8 re-enforcement. I use this to hold the tent open too.
Don’t glue any of the pvc like I did for many years. That way you can have more options like this swing-away hose connection
Clear plastic over hoops, held up by rope and the re-enforcement wood. Why have ‘tents?’ Our night time temperatures will dip to 45 deg. F (7 deg. c) even in the middle of summer. Use 6 mil UV stable greenhouse film. It’ll last for years of opening and closing every day. We like our tomatoes to be warm and happy.
Could this be pollen from the laurel bush? It’s been blooming since Jan. 22. I know that you can’t tell by color alone, but at this time I don’t have the microscope or capability to properly identify pollen.
This is the first year I’ve had bees into winter. I was curious about all the types of pollen showing up on the bees entering the hive. I was sure some of it was gorse since we seem to have so much of it growing thanks to Lord Bennett of Ireland.
I made a 9 minute movie showing the bees on different types of flowers and Shigeo of the local bee association demonstrates how to transplant an Echium. I realize that some people can’t spare the time, so I’m offering ‘screen saves,’ as well.
Laurel blooming by Bonnie’s house
Bee on laurel, tannish-colored pollen…January 22, 2013
Bees on rosemary, at City Hall, February 8, 2013
Willow catkins blooming near our hives…sun comes out…bees love it. February 8,2013
Gorse pollen is orange…I had been hoping it was the yellow pollen I had seen going into the hive. February 13, 2013
The video shows this bee in slow motion working the pollen back to it’s pollen sac. I didn’t see it at first until a more experience bee keeper showed me. February 13, 2013
Bee on heather, 2-14-13, right up the street from Joe and Karen’s house.
Bee on acacia, 2-15-13…Shigeo showed me this place to get some video. By the time we got to it, the bees were returning to home so I only got a short clip of it.
Shigeo shows how to transplant an Echium Tree.
Echium for 2013…I’m hoping this plant will shoot up 10 feet (3 m) starting about April or May. The tarp protects against freezing weather.
These are the plants that Shigeo demonstrated in the video, how to transplant. They are my hope for 2014
We planted this echium in late October 2011. It just stood still for several months. About April or May we noticed it had grown to about 10 feet. The bees worked it for 3 solid months.
The video shows the bees in action on the flowers. I used the Canon SX-50 (50x optical zoom) on the laurel as well as the willow catkins. My little pocket camera, a Sanyo Xacti performed admirably for the rest of the close ups…I love the ‘super macro’ feature.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 