Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 17, April 27, 2012

Friday, April 27, 2012 | JustaDumbBlonde

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Good morning everyone! I'm looking forward to hearing your gardening challenges and successes today. Please check in and let us know how it's going.

This morning I've put together a little pictorial of how Mark and I cut a honey bee hive out of a wall or similar place. This is a medium-sized cutout that we did back in March. The hive was located in an old shed that the owner wanted to tear down, but they were trying to reclaim windows and the old boards and the bees weren't having any of that. So, the owner got her building back and Mark got a beautiful and productive hive of bees! Talk about win-win!

In this first photo, you see the old shed and Mark has begun vacuuming up the bees after
we removed a sheet of siding and a few lap boards.

A closer look at our first few minutes of the cutout.

Here we begin to see the brood section of
the hive. These are cells where they are raising new bees.

You can see how the bees try to
keep the brood covered to protect it and keep
it warm. The brood is continuously tended.

In the cells that were broken when
we removed the boards, you can see
stored pollen.

We are continuing to remove
boards, expose the hive and vacuum bees.

On the left side, you can see pollen
and bee bread being stored. On the right
you begin to see the honey stores.

Lots of honey stored. We probably
removed 150 lbs. of honey from this hive!

It was really cool as we exposed
the hive, we found the comb to be in
continuous 8 ft. sheets.

As Mark is cutting the comb out of the wall,
I am cutting select pieces to size and bracing it in wooden
frames with rubber bands. We are basically
moving the workings of the hive with the bees.

You can see the empty space where
the hive used to be.

Three hours later, the bees are in
their new home in Mark's back yard apiary.

I hope that you found that interesting and informative. Inviting your questions and/or comments.

Have a great week!

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Previous weeks' threads:

Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 5, February 03, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 6, February 10, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation?) Vol. 7, February 17, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Home Sweet Home) Vol. 8, February 24, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Structure Part 1) Vol. 9, March 2, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Transplanting Tomatoes) Vol. 10, March 9, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Useful Links) Vol. 11, March 16, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 12, March 23, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 13, March 31, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Happy Easter!) Vol. 14, April 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 15, April 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 16, April 20, 2012

[JustaDumbBlonde]

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[JRandomFreeper]

Basil is coming along nicely, as are the tomatoes. Won't be long, and it will be italian food season. ;)

/johnny

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I love italian food season! Isn’t that ALL year long???

[scottteng]

Nice save of the hive too many would just kill all the bees and clean up even some of the bee people are so afraid of getting Africanized bees from wild populations that they pass.

[FreedomPoster]

Cool post! Good luck on a fully successful relocation. I assume there is still some chance of failure? Or is that a high-percentage operation?

[JRandomFreeper]

Unfortunately, the basil will eventually bolt, and the summer will nuke the tomatoes. But there will be another opportunity in the fall.

I do love it fresh.

/johnny

[JustaDumbBlonde]

We have a 90% success rate of the hive after a cutout. Really, complete success now because the one hive that we lost was the second one we ever removed and we didn’t get the queen. We’ve learned so much and refined our methods with great results. From the bee forum that I read regularly, most people have about a 50% success rate with hive survival. I don’t know why it would be so low.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Oh, no, we never want to kill bees. We do not have an africanized bee problem in Louisiana. I have met some feral bees with a nasty disposition, but re-queening the hive takes care of that quickly.

[texas_mrs]

Does anyone here know anything about Campari tomaotes? I bought some from H.E.B. recently and they taste as good as garden grown! I have seen where people on the internet say they have grown their own from the seed; I suppose that is legal if you don't intend to sell? Campari is a trademarked name.

And has anyone grown any Anasazi beans? I bought some yesterday and found the story behind them to be so interesting! The girl at the fruit stand said her mom made some and they were better than pintos. I just got them because they looked so different.

Hoping to set up a rain barrel and drip system soon so I don't have to hand water everything. I had some squash & cucumbers that were wilting down during the day and so put a milk jug full of water with a tiny hole in one corner next to each and then sprayed each one with Garrett juice and now they are starting to flourish. But a drip system that I could put the compost tea in? THAT would be awesome!

[CynicalBear]

Last year I found that by using shade cloth both the tomatoes and basil continued strong and producing well. I lost most of my tomato plants but experimented on six plants with shade cloth and those six plants continued to produce until the first frost. This year I ordered and received a 20 by 32 foot shade cloth and am in the process of covering that much of my garden. I’m near Aiken, SC

[who knows what evil?]

What percent density? I’ve dealt with that South Carolina sun...ye gads.

[JRandomFreeper]

Here in Texas, most folks I know plan on two plantings per year. One in spring, one in fall. Depending on how bad the summer is, the tomatoes may make it, or not. Last year, it was like my yard had been hit by a nuke. Even the weeds died.

/johnny

[gramho12]

Very cool about the bee hives, interesting and informative. Thanks for the pics.

[bgill]

AWESOME pics! I could never do that. Bees and wasps hate me and the feeling is mutual.

The glads started blooming yesterday and there’s more caladiums finally coming up so the flower bed will be looking nice any day. I see that one package of caladiums was a dud.

I did get off my duff this week and attacked some of the weeds, but then I messed up my knee so have been off it for the past three days. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Had a couple seed packets waiting by the door but no can do now without a knee. Didn’t get the weeds done and there’s a week’s work of them still out there.

I noticed some broccoli FINALLY coming up but need to fill in with more of them and cauliflower. I did fill in more in the lettuce and greens area. I moved the stray cuke back where he belonged and it looks like he won’t make it (not that I expected him to but had hoped). Got some old okra seeds soaked and in the ground so who knows if they’ll sprout. Mr. b is still parking his truck by the little side garden so the heat off it is burning everything up so that won’t help the okra either. Here in TX, it’s already in the mid 90s. I had watered yesterday morning and by late afternoon things were starting to wilt.

Started some herbs indoors but the cat keeps sitting on them. I holler at her but she just stares back all innocent, uh huh. If they do manage to come up, they’ll be moved outside into containers.

I really want to dig up the grass (cough, weeds) between the veg garden and the house and put in berries along the garden fence and roses along the house with mainly herbs and a few flowers in between. Mr. b can move one of his fountains over there and a couple of chairs. But that’s not happening any time soon. Maybe next year.

[Gabz]

Mornign!!!!!! What great pictures - thank you for sharing.

On that note, I wonder how many here are aware of the following:

Monsanto buys leading bee research firm after being implicated in bee colony collapse

FTA: To translate, it appears as though Monsanto plans to use even more chemical inputs to supposedly solve the bee collapse problem, even though it is these very inputs that are largely the cause of the bee collapse problem. Several recent studies, after all, have definitively linked crop pesticides and herbicides, as well as high fructose corn syrup, to CCD.

The future looks bleak for bees, in other words, as Monsanto appears poised to slowly gobble up all the competing companies and organizations that threaten its own GMO products, while pretending to care about the dwindling bee populations. And unless drastic action is taken to stop Monsanto in its continued quest to dominate global agriculture, the food supply as we know it will soon be a thing of the past.

This is some scary stuff..........

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks for the great beekeeping photo docu.

Our maters are staked and doing great with a few blooms. We have some baby squash and the peppers are growing good. We have a few zuke blooms also. I guess we are off and running on this years garden.

I think that Monday or so, I will till the okra bed and get it going. My county guy said to wait till June for okra, so I still have time to soil test that area.

[bgill]

Last year, it was like my yard had been hit by a nuke. Even the weeds died.

Don't I know it. I gave up on the garden about the end of June. Our lawn didn't make it so it's now all weeds. You're right about no weeds last summer but they've more than made up for it this year. Everyone is complaining about so many coming up. I've never seen the weeds like they are now. I'm thinking it's like a prairie or forest fire and the next year sees lots of new little plants popping up.

The hills are still covered with dead cedar and such so we're still in danger of one spark setting everything off.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

There has been absolutely no proven connection between farm chemicals and colony collapse disorder. All of these stories are driven by an anti-chemical agenda and an anti-corn/corn syrup agenda.

Colony collapse disorder can be causes by viruses, mites and other parasites, and just plain bad beekeeping practices that isn't actually colony collapse.