The Bees Are Back!

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...

Tuesday’s Tips — Fruit Set Problems in Squash

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...

Sunday Zen

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...

Wordless Wednesday

Colorado California

Garden Journal — Block Island Bees

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...

Tuesday’s Tips — Caring for Bees

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...

Tuesday’s Tips — Attracting Honeybees

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....