Garden Update

We have been entertaining guests from Oz for the past couple of weeks. It has been exhausting but such fun. The only problem was that the bees and lottie had to take a back seat for a while. Actually i had to do little micro checks now and then when there was a spare moment. I wanted to take the opportunity to show and tell how the lottie is doing at the moment.

This first one is of a solitary bee in the bee hotel. I am always glad to see those guys using the accommodations that I provide.


The bees have been busy and required quite a bit of attention lately. One of the queens was not doing well and was finally disposed of by her charges. When I could not find her and saw the sisters had begun making queen cells, I had to keep a close eye on them. I calculated back when I thought she went missing (from notes on the hive card) and then listened in the evenings until I heard the new queen piping, and the new queens still sealed up in their cells answering her. at that point, I opened the hive and broke all the queen cells that there were and let the young queens scramble down into the hive body. One always goes at night so that when all these queens are loose in the hive some will bot fly away taking a portion of the colony with them. Instead, they will fight it out during the night and in the morning only one queen will emerge the winner....the urge to swarm will be over and the worksters will feel that they have a new queen that has all the qualities necessary to keep the colony going.

I broke out the queen cells, and here you can see a cell that I had removed from the a frame. I pricked the end of the cell open and the queen scrambled out. Here the queen cell and the just emerged queen.


This is a queen that I have just marked with a blue dot in order to spot her quickly. I am releasing her back into her colony


These Limnanthes plants are doing so well and are audible zooming with bees. donna is trying these out this year, I believe.


The blueberries are loaded with blooms again this year.


The transplanted beetroot plantlets.


Here you can see the onion leaves on the foreground, beyond that are the cur spinach (coming again) and in the distance the broad beans with Phacelia in between. It is an experiment to see if I can get better pollination of the bean flowers and to discourage birds from getting at the pods.


The bean rack and just-planted beans. there was frost forecast and wind...so I took measures. The curtain is on the side from whence the wind blew.


The Spirea japonica is looking good this year complimented by the Lychnis doica and the Myosotis.


This shady little corner is looking colourful with the Corydalis, Astrantia, Arisaema and Heuchera.


Finally over in the flower garden, the little Wisteria is doing very well--a bit more developed each year.

 

Wow, everything is looking good enough to eat. The perennials are colorful and that wisteria is a show stopper. Looks like your bee colonies are doing well. We had a bit of a void for a short while for bees, but the native pollinators are quickly filling in. The local hobby bee keeper moved his hives out of town. I worried a bit a bit about the native pollinators with several honey bee hives competing last summer. I have always enjoyed all bees/pollinators in the garden.

 

I could read about you and your bees all day Sjoerd.They are fascinating creatures and I have learnt quite a few things from your posts. Your allotment is looking stunning! Incidentally,my spirea is doing really well this year.

 

Thanks so much, JEWELL-- Well, of course my little operation doesn't hold a candle to yours, but it is coming along a bit now. That little bee hotel is for solitary bees of all sorts. and sizes. I have only seen two sorts using it so far.
When that fellow took his bees out of the city there, don't forget that the bees can fly up to a radius of 6 km's to find nectar and pollen. Some of his bees may eventually find their way back to your gardens. There are lots of other pollinators buzzing and floating around, so I would expect that the gap would be filled without problem eventually. I hope that you will see some butterflies soon. I have seen on here that there are heaps of lovely butterflies there in north america.

FRANK--one can buy special marking pens at the bee supply stores especially for marking queens. There are also little plastic circles with numbers that one can glue onto the queen...but I do not like the idea of that, personally. The stuff that I use is a sort of chalky-like substance. The worksters chew that off her a little bit at the time.
Thank for the link. Yes, I know that device; in fact, we saw a film and talked about it a couple of meetings ago. I am a member of a beekeepers organization here locally and we meet every so often to discuss various beekeeping subjects and trends. Those things are really expensive, I find.

Ahhh KIA--What a nice thing to say. I did not realize that you found the beekeeping postings that interesting. that is nice...and you are right about it being a fascinating creature. Good to hear that your spirea is doing well this year. Which type do you have?

Thanks EILEEN--I especially like that Heucheras too. I like its tiny, delicate blooms on those lanky stems. There are always a couple of bees that come to them and they behave as if the nectar is wildly delicious. hahaha. I am glad that you like the bee postings. I hope that you will be able to start your hives soon.

 

Your vegetable garden looks great, so neat and organized and your flowers are so pretty. I REALLY like the color of the Heuchera also. It is always interesting to read about your bees and see the pictures also. How far do bees travel from their hive?

 

Looking good Sjoerd! I was just in my garden and noticed that my beet seeds still have not come up. I think I need to re-sow, or is there a trick? This is a first for me.

 

Thanks 2OF--The bees travel varying distances from their hive...but not further than 6 Km's. Bees normally will take the food sources that are closest to their hive ...supposedly to conserve energy, as that determines the length of their lives.

NETTY--Hiya miss! I have noticed that beetroot seeds can take quite a while to germinate some years. This year ours were late too. I personally believe that it has to do with ground temp.
What you can do to urge your germination along is to place a strip of black plastic over your beetroot bed. That can be a bin liner or garbage bag.
You leave it 4-5 days and then have a look. once they begin to come up, remove the plastic.

Good luck.