Our little patch of the world feels like Heaven these days. Cool air, warm sun, enough moisture and lots of growing plants. I sit in the garden, and listen to the birds and bees, watching the bees catch the sun as they go back and forth to the garden hives.
CC planted 63 watermelon yesterday. What? You say, What in the world do we need that many potential watermelon for? Beats me. Maybe we'll bomb the neighborhood with them. Now to plant the cantaloupe. Planting is fun, keeping out the weeds isn't.
I planted the pole limas, also, since they need warmer soil than the other beans. We'll se if the growing season is long enough for them. Today I plant the rest of the Sugar Dots corn, and about the middle of June the last of the Silver Queen corn. With the extended, warm fall, the corn grows well into September, and the pollen helps the bees store enough for their January brooding.
CC & I went into the garden bees, because he thought one was swarming. He had just seen a swarm leave, headed for the woods. Out of five we looked at, three were queenless, with no queen cells or eggs to make one from, but one was full of queen cells at the hatching point. We could see their antennae sticking out of the cells. So I showed CC how to gently open the cell and let her out. He was thrilled. (He doesn't say much, but grins a lot) We made up a nuc and put queens in all the empty hives and the nuc. Got to go through the hives again. No sign of EFB, though. Phew!
We think it was that swarm that just took up residence in a hollow trees down by the sheds, too high to get to. CC & Sam heard them, then saw them go in. I'm sure we're repopulating this part of the world with bees.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment