Monday, June 28, 2010
Another Bee Video
Karl had to replace the screen cover of the hive this past weekend as too many bees were still escaping on to the porch. The kids and I are out of town so he had a bit more time on his hands, and he made a video of the process. As he says, if you have nothing else to do but watch paint dry, you might enjoy it. He did post it on the local new beekeepers listserv and got some nice comments. He also got some unsolicited advice on the several things a more experienced beekeeper thought he was doing wrong!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Watermelon Hammock
The Sugar Baby Watermelon is growing quite nicely. I'm in Chicago with the kids so Karl is on measuring duty: the main vine is 83" long so it's grown another 13" in the past week. I think the trellis will be able to hold everything up, but I'm concerned about the strength of the vine. Hence, the watermelon hammock.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Baby Sugar Baby Watermelon
Our trellised sugar baby watermelon is doing great so far. Last Sunday, the kids and I measured the longest vine -- 33 inches and one flower. Yesterday, it measured 61 inches. Kai quickly did the math -- 28 inches in a week or 4 inches a day! There are too many flowers on the vines to count and we have our first inch and half long baby watermelon.Our squash is not doing all that great. The woman I talked to at Frager's suggested the soil might need more calcium or we might have a pollination problem. We better not have a pollination problem -- 20,000+ bees and not one of them is visiting my squash plants? What good are they?
Betting on the calcium deficiency, I added Tomato Tone this past Saturday. Hopefully that'll do it.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Father's Day Cherry Pie
On Friday morning, Aksel and I drove out to Rock Hill Orchard and picked sour cherries. It was a gorgeous day -- the cherries were beautiful against the clear, blue sky.
Aksel enjoyed being my trusty assistant.
And the sour cherries made a very good pie for Father's Day.
Aksel enjoyed being my trusty assistant.
And the sour cherries made a very good pie for Father's Day.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Escaping Bees
There must be a small hole in the new screen lid that Karl built and installed on Sunday as the hive is slowly leaking bees. Even though it looks secure, by the early evening tonight, there were several dozen bees out on the porch.
Karl went out at about 8 pm and, because the girls looked calm and happy, broke a basic beekeeping rule: Don't open the hive at night. Thinking he could just lift the screen cover off to remove the sugar water feeder and replace it unscathed, he didn't bother putting on his bee suit or to smoke the hive. Yup, he got his first sting -- on his neck.
The good news is that he doesn't seem to be too allergic to honeybee stings.
Karl went out at about 8 pm and, because the girls looked calm and happy, broke a basic beekeeping rule: Don't open the hive at night. Thinking he could just lift the screen cover off to remove the sugar water feeder and replace it unscathed, he didn't bother putting on his bee suit or to smoke the hive. Yup, he got his first sting -- on his neck.
The good news is that he doesn't seem to be too allergic to honeybee stings.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tour of the Front Porch
Around 6 pm last night, Karl attached a Flip video camera to a fishing pole to shoot this video of our bees hanging out on the second story front porch. Thankfully, the bees don't hang out like that all day. I know it's harmless, but I just don't like to walk under a pile of bees.
Earlier in the day, Karl built a screen top to replace the original wooden one. The screen will allow fresh air to get into the hive more easily and hopefully will keep it a bit cooler. We aren't buying the bee air conditioning unit yet. He also built a feeder into the new lid. A quart mason jar with pinholes punched into it will sit upside down into the hive. Bees then can lick the lid to drink the mixture of 1:1 sugar water. Hopefully feeding the bees this way will help them keep the hive cool while encouraging them to build comb.
When Karl took the hive apart to check thing out, the super on top of the queen excluder is a large one and was full of bees and honey. Karl estimates the whole super weighed over 120 lbs. Here it is on floor.
Bees had built comb on top of the queen excluder so he scraped that off and put it aside. The kids were able to taste honey that was left on that comb. They loved it!
Finally, we didn't see the queen, but we did see a lot of larvae in the second super just under the queen excluder. There is plenty of room for a lot more bees in that super.
Earlier in the day, Karl built a screen top to replace the original wooden one. The screen will allow fresh air to get into the hive more easily and hopefully will keep it a bit cooler. We aren't buying the bee air conditioning unit yet. He also built a feeder into the new lid. A quart mason jar with pinholes punched into it will sit upside down into the hive. Bees then can lick the lid to drink the mixture of 1:1 sugar water. Hopefully feeding the bees this way will help them keep the hive cool while encouraging them to build comb.
When Karl took the hive apart to check thing out, the super on top of the queen excluder is a large one and was full of bees and honey. Karl estimates the whole super weighed over 120 lbs. Here it is on floor.
Bees had built comb on top of the queen excluder so he scraped that off and put it aside. The kids were able to taste honey that was left on that comb. They loved it!
Finally, we didn't see the queen, but we did see a lot of larvae in the second super just under the queen excluder. There is plenty of room for a lot more bees in that super.
Trellis
The vegetables are quickly outgrowing their square footage -- we've got to go up.
The new trellis...
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Garden Grows and Grows
For Mother's Day, Karl and Kai built me a raised bed garden. This vegetable garden, nestled between two parking spots in our back alley has a lot of light, but not a whole lot of ambiance. No matter. I was determined to make it work. In past years, I've just thrown zinnia seeds down the length of the plot, watered them and hoped they grow. Thanks to our hot, humid summers, grow they did so we always had tons of bright flowers. This year, however, I'm looking for a bit more order and a lot more vegetables.
The raised bed is about 8 inches high, 7.5 feet long and a bit more than 2 feet wide. Following the Square Foot Garden recipe, I filled it with a mixture of soil from our compost pile, peat moss and Perlite. Unfortunately, I couldn't find vermiculite at any of the garden centers around here. I also filled quite a few pots with the mixture for tomatoes.
After the first few plants I put in the ground were eaten by squirrels, we erected a fence around the perimeter and covered the whole thing with netting. The second round of plants have really taken off -- last week I had to remove the protective netting as the plants were growing into it too much.
I still planted zinnia seeds and my neighbor gave me a bunch of volunteers from her garden so I'll still have flowers. In the raised bed (I can't call it a Square Foot Garden officially because I never put in my dividers), we have a sugar baby watermelon, yellow crook neck squash, zucchini and another crook neck squash in the back row. The front row has basil, eggplant, cucumber, carrots, bell pepper and another cucumber.
The pots include a six or seven yellow teardrop tomato plants due to my overzealous seed planting. I've run out of friends and neighbors to give them to so I'm left with the rest. I also have another pepper plant, some carrots, a Brandywine tomato and a cherry tomato plant. Finally, I accidentally bought a watermelon plant so I stuck it in a pot. We'll see if the vine can travel along the side of the flower bed.
Karl's going to build a trellis on the north side so that I can train the vines to grow up. I'm hoping that I can train the tomatoes to grow up against our fence wall.
The raised bed is about 8 inches high, 7.5 feet long and a bit more than 2 feet wide. Following the Square Foot Garden recipe, I filled it with a mixture of soil from our compost pile, peat moss and Perlite. Unfortunately, I couldn't find vermiculite at any of the garden centers around here. I also filled quite a few pots with the mixture for tomatoes.
After the first few plants I put in the ground were eaten by squirrels, we erected a fence around the perimeter and covered the whole thing with netting. The second round of plants have really taken off -- last week I had to remove the protective netting as the plants were growing into it too much.
I still planted zinnia seeds and my neighbor gave me a bunch of volunteers from her garden so I'll still have flowers. In the raised bed (I can't call it a Square Foot Garden officially because I never put in my dividers), we have a sugar baby watermelon, yellow crook neck squash, zucchini and another crook neck squash in the back row. The front row has basil, eggplant, cucumber, carrots, bell pepper and another cucumber.
The pots include a six or seven yellow teardrop tomato plants due to my overzealous seed planting. I've run out of friends and neighbors to give them to so I'm left with the rest. I also have another pepper plant, some carrots, a Brandywine tomato and a cherry tomato plant. Finally, I accidentally bought a watermelon plant so I stuck it in a pot. We'll see if the vine can travel along the side of the flower bed.
Karl's going to build a trellis on the north side so that I can train the vines to grow up. I'm hoping that I can train the tomatoes to grow up against our fence wall.
Birthday Cake
I guess I'm not the only one in the family who can bake a cake. Karl made a German chocolate cake the other day for my birthday. Delicious.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Backyard Beekeeping on CNN
A local beekeeper was featured in a clip on CNN. It's not clear whether she lives in Takoma Park, DC or across the state line in Takoma Park, MD. I'm guessing it's the latter as beekeeping in the District is still a clandestine activity.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Bee Air Conditioning
It's hot and it's only going to get hotter. Around 11 pm, Karl took a look at the bees and found a bunch of them hanging out on the hive's front porch to stay cool. I admit that masses of bees hanging out on the wall of my house freaks me out.
Karl's canvassed a beekeeping group to find out if he can replace the cover with some sort of screen so that the hive stays a bit cooler. One guy recommended that we replace the inner cover of the hive with a screen cover during the summer so there's ventilation across the whole upper area of the hive. Someone else, a woman who keeps hives on rooftops, recommended a BeeCool Honey Bee Hive Ventilator. This solar powered contraption is a thermostatically controlled ventilator that draws air in from hive entrance, up through and out the top, and exhausts stale humid air out via the vents in the ventilator. Are our bees really going to get air conditioning? Seriously?
Karl's canvassed a beekeeping group to find out if he can replace the cover with some sort of screen so that the hive stays a bit cooler. One guy recommended that we replace the inner cover of the hive with a screen cover during the summer so there's ventilation across the whole upper area of the hive. Someone else, a woman who keeps hives on rooftops, recommended a BeeCool Honey Bee Hive Ventilator. This solar powered contraption is a thermostatically controlled ventilator that draws air in from hive entrance, up through and out the top, and exhausts stale humid air out via the vents in the ventilator. Are our bees really going to get air conditioning? Seriously?
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