Adventures in organic gardening.
Saturday: The bees are coming today! To get ready for their arrival, I'm preparing their sugar syrup and making a homemade version of Honey B Healthy, a nourishing supplement that is added to the syrup. I'll be teaching my co-workers how to be beekeepers and they'll be installing the bees on Sunday with my guidance. Ray built us... Continue Reading →
Or we might have titled this post "Why Bees Are So Important." In January the press reported that scientists had noticed a significant decline in bumblebee populations in the U.S. — first it was the honeybees that were disappearing and now it's bumblebees too. Scientists are not sure why just yet, but one thing they... Continue Reading →
Got behind on my dates. National Honey Bee Awareness Day was yesterday , but just because I missed that boat it doesn't mean we shouldn't be celebrating our honey bees every other day of the year. So let's start today by being grateful for all that these insects do for us — pollinating more than... Continue Reading →
Colorado California
Mary Beth and I have been trying to push ourselves to blog more often so in the past few months we've created several regular features. One is Sunday Zen, a photographic time-out where we go into the garden, usually ours, but sometimes other public and private gardens, and take photographs that reflect our mood. Tuesday's... Continue Reading →
This week marks the fourth annual National Pollinator Week. Bees are probably the first thing that come to mind when we think about pollinators, but there are many others that deserve our gratitude and care — hummingbirds, bats, butterflies, and beetles to name a few. I love honeybees best so that's what I'm going to... Continue Reading →
I couldn't order my bees back in the beginning of the year because the date of our arrival in Colorado was constantly changing. I really needed to do it in January or February before the apiaries sold out, but up until a week before our departure I still wasn't sure when we'd be in Durango.... Continue Reading →
Mary Beth: This will be my last bee update from Block Island for a while because Ray and I are on the road. Durango, here we come!. Monday, May 3: The apple trees are blooming on the Island. The buds started opening up around April 27th, which is really early. As I mentioned in an... Continue Reading →
Mary Beth: Good news first. I found eggs and it looks like a good mix of brood with a few drone cells mixed in. Yeah! Bad news. I saw a varroa mite on one of my bees! I've poured over my photos and I've only seen the one bee with a mite. What a sad... Continue Reading →
