Virginia Avenue Community Garden

The kind folks at the Virginia Avenue Community Garden have given my daughter's Girl Scout Troop and my son's Cub Scout Den a 3.5 by 20 foot plot in the community garden. I'm really excited about getting the girls out there.

Last Bee Feeding of the Winter?

Kai put on his kid-size bee veil and gloves today for the first time today. He fed the bees what may likely be their last feeding of the winter. It consists of an inverted mason jar full of honey -- honey that we had harvested from them in the fall -- with small pinholes punched in the lid. The jar sits on the top screen of the hive so the bees can get up there and take the honey out. Karl has covered the jar and the screen with a few old towels so the entire hive stays warm.

It's hard to know how much food they need now. Because their hive sits inside a sunny enclosed porch, it certainly never got as cold as it would have if it were out in the backyard. In the winter when it's cold, the bees cluster together in a tight ball to keep themselves -- and most importantly, the queen -- warm. Because the porch is relatively warm, they may have been moving around a bit more and therefore needed more food during the winter. The last few days have been warm enough that the bees have gotten out and about, but there isn't a whole lot blooming just yet. It would be terrible if the hive starved to death during these last few weeks of cold weather.

Honey Bee on Witch Hazel

Honey bee hunting has once again begun in earnest on our walks around our neighborhood. About four blocks away from our home, we came across a large witch hazel shrub in full bloom. Witch hazel is one of the earliest blooming plants so its sometimes called winterbloom. After looking for just a couple minutes, sure enough, it was visited by a honey bee.

Carrots

We had another 70 degree February day so the kids and I took advantage of it to a bit of early spring cleaning. We also picked some carrots that had been languishing in one of our pots all winter. Our 2010 urban garden is officially done.

Spring Weather for Valentine's Day

It got up to 70 degrees yesterday, Valentine's Day, and the bees were out in full force. In the morning they were simply flying in loops right outside the hive entrance to get their bearings, but by midday, they were zooming out and flying away to who knows where. I saw crocus in bloom in a sunny, south facing garden on our block for the first time this winter so maybe that's where they were headed. The weather forecast calls for warm days ahead so I'll have to stake our those crocuses to catch a glimpse of our bees at work.

For Valentine's Day dessert I baked a white cake with coconut pastry cream filling and whipped cream frosting with a raspberry-strawberry coulis from the Gourmet cookbook. Delicious.

New Video of Bees in the Winter

One of the things I like about living in Washington, DC is that you do get short glimmers of spring in January and February. Sunday was one of those sunny and kind of warm days that melted snow and helped to combat cabin fever.

Our bees enjoyed the day, too. Around 1 pm, we noticed a bunch of the girls flying in and out of the hive. Check out the video Karl made.