competition in the chanterelle field

Yesterday I took a walk at my favorite spot for chanterelles.  I've had my eye on them for a few weeks and was told that they are slow growers.  But I wanted to see how much they grew over a 4 day period when we also had some rain. 

Previously, they were too small to pick and I have been waiting for them to grow before I pick them.  But as I walked, I saw a few that were still small and decided to wait for my return before I decide whether or not to pick them. 

Then I got to a patch that had been loaded with the mushrooms and I found nothing at first.  Then, I saw that someone had cut them at the base.  That means another good mushroomer has discovered my patch.  Or perhaps I discovered his or hers.

In one place, I saw they had marked the spot by tying a ribbon to a branch.  I took the ribbon!  And I covered the tiny mushrooms there with leaves so they couldn't easily be spotted.

They missed a few.  Any other time, if I didn't have a mushroom thief to deal with, I would have let these fairly small mushrooms grow another several days.  But this time, I picked them. 

It was either pick them small or don't get any at all.

I just fried them up and these will go into the freezer for some future day.  It's hard though because they smell so good!

June 28 bee check

I went to Vermont to check on the bees yesterday.  Wow.  Two hives is double the work and double the time.  I need to factor in more time on my next visit.  Here's what I found and did:

• I removed the feeders.  They were empty and probably had been for a few weeks.  The weather has been so nice though that I wasn't worried about feeding them really.  But I had made sugar syrup for them and then forgot it in Maine.  That made my decision that I was done feeding until the fall.  I'll feed in the fall until freezing so that they won't have to use up their store of honey.
• I looked at almost every frame.  I cut away some queen cells which makes me nervous.  I sure hope I didn't miss any as I don't want them to swarm!
• The frames otherwise looked good.  They were filled with brood, pollen and honey.  I saw evidence of a queen with many eggs but I didn't see the queen.  In some ways, I hate inspections because I'm afraid I might  kill the queen unknowingly.
• Supers were added to each of the hives so that now I have two deeps and one super on each of them. I hope that, in a month, I can add another super to each hive.  We'll see how it goes.
• The electric fence seemed to have plenty of power so I didn't change the batteries this trip.  I'll probably want to go back in a few weeks anyway to check them as well as the bees.

What a slacker I've been in keeping you up to date!

I did get my bees and got them into two hives with two deeps and a top hive feeder.  I replenished the fence and then left them on their own a few weeks ago and went to Maine for the summer.  I was lucky enough to rent my house for 6 weeks, giving me time to catch up with my second home.

I left the bees on their own but I will be going to check on them next week.  At that time, I will add a super, which, if it is filled, as I hope it will be, will be my honey later this summer.  If I'm real lucky, I'll end up with two supers filled with honey on each hive.  That is  my goal but there are way too many factors that could affect that goal. Things like:

- too much rain
- too cold
- poor flowering on plants
- swarms
- Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
- the queen dying or not producing enough

I had the hives checked, just visually, the other day.  Bees were flying around so that's a good sign things are just humming along over there.  Apparently the garden is also thriving.  How could it not with all those pollinators! 

However, I still need to cut trees.  I do not get enough light to satisfy me.  I see my shrubs and fruit trees becoming elongated which is them trying to reach for more sun.  I will have more cut this fall.

What is there about light?  I heard that it becomes more important the older you get.  Not sure why but I feel like I crave sunshine at times.

I was speaking with a friend who is also a beekeeper.  She was actually my inspiration in a way as I became interested while talking with her and how excited she would be about her bees.  Not to mention the environmental factors involved and the need for bees in this world. I wanted to help in a small way.  But she said that queen bees used to last longer than they do today so that she's found that she was constantly replacing queens.  Our summer is so short that we need to go buy new queens if we lose one.  It takes time for the bees to create a new queen bee trying to get a good honey crop in this area is impossible if you've lost your queen.  She's giving up and will buy her honey from others. I think that's too bad but she did it for many years. 

More bees coming

This week, May 14th, I'll pick up more bees. I had ordered this Nuc back in January I believe...and paid for it which is always a plus. A Nuc is five frames of bees with brood and queen.  I will then put them into their permanent home in a hive right next to the active one.

I was just out watching the bees at the first hive and they were beginning to bring in light yellow and orange pollen in the little sacs on each side of their tiny bodies.  Dandelions are in bloom so I expect the orangey pollen is from them.  Daffodils and lots of lawn flowers that are beautiful before the first mowing I saw some bugle weed in bloom and lots of other flowers but don't know their names.  The weather today is in the high 70's and we're in a warm spell right now so I should see a lot of activity in terms of bees and nature in general. I love spring.

I will get into the hive this week since I've had the current hive for almost three weeks.  I'll see how they have filled the frames in their hive.  Because this first hive was a "package of bees", they came with no frames or brood.  And the queen had to be introduced to them.  So it'll be interesting to see how they're doing in there.  From the outside looking in, it looks like they're doing well.  Stay tuned!

I keep thinking of winter

I've probably mentioned this before about my winter plan this year.  But it bears repeating, if only to get it out of my system.  I am determined to not lose my bees this coming winter.  So I will make cedar shavings pillows!  I have one bale of cedar shavings and I will be making pillows that will fit into a super (this is the box where you collect the honey in the summer). This year, we'll also put a few into use in the winter.  The super will have a screen stapled to the bottom so no bees can get into the box. The shavings will catch any condensation that drips down onto the bees and freezes them during the winter months.  I'm convinced that's what happened to my bees this past winter. So I will be making the cedar pillows this summer to be ready for them later.

A great day for foraging

May 4, 2014
This afternoon, I headed to my favorite spot for fiddleheads here in Southern Vermont and after a slow start, I found a great patch and picked a little from each bunch.  I do that so that more will come next year.

As I was leaving, I saw a group of people in a nearby area and so I hurried away from my spot, hoping they didn't see where I had been or what I had been picking. I worry so about patches of ferns going extinct from overpicking so I at least try to do my part by taking just a little.  Although you can see in the photo that I picked plenty!  More than I ever have at one time.  The timing was perfect.  Some that I saw had already grown too tall and were closer to ferns than fiddleheads.

Then I decided to go check out the ramps that grow nearby.  I had checked on them a week or so ago and they hadn't formed bulbs yet so I checked with some expects on the yahoo group, Northeast Mushrooms and they advised me to make good use of the leaves which are just as good as the bulbs.  I love the bulbs sauteed and then cooked in cream with parmesan cheese over the top. They are delicious.

But I will try sauteing the greens like I would spinach or chard only I won't need to add garlic to these leaves!  They already have a garlic flavor, for those of you who have never had ramps or wild leeks.

All in all, a great day for foraging!  Bon Appetit!

April 24 - Bee package installed

I picked up my package of bees at 7AM today at New Hampshire Honeybee in Gilsum, NH. I was the first customer to arrive so I had my pick of the litter. 

I was told that I should choose a package that had the bees all clustered together, rather than spread out within the screened box they come in.  So I chose a nice cluster and they sat on the floor of the car back to Vermont.

The queen is a marked Italian.  I'm not sure if all the bees are Italian but they are nice, gentle bees.  I didn't get stung at all but I was in my beekeeper's full suit so they didn't have the opportunity to get me!

I had never installed a package so I did some things backwards rather than the order written in Beekeeping for Dummies.  For example, the queen cage didn't have nails to hang it between the frames so I had to go find nails and a rock to do it.  I had never removed the cork from the candy side of the cage either so had to go find something to pry it off with. Next time, I'd be more prepared with these items.

I also dumped the bees into the hive before the queen cage was found inside the travel box.  When I opened the  traveling box, I couldn't find the queen cage because bees were all around it, hiding it.  So I dumped the bees into the new hive...at least as many as possible.  Some refused to come out of the box.  They will find their way into the new hive with all their friends I expect.

I'm back in business!!

April 18th and spring is here and bees are coming soon

Another month has gone by and we are finally...almost....out of the cold weather.  I say that but it's cold this morning but will warm up later today.  The next several days will be spring-like weather. I see tulips, daffodils and hyacinths poking up from the ground now although nothing is blooming yet.  Even the forsythia has not flowered yet but it's coming.  The magnolia tree out front is not showing me anything yet. I don't see the buds on it. I do hope it blooms because it's just a beautiful start to spring. 

The bees will be coming next week...the first batch. The two hives are set up in the yard.  The electric fence is in place and working too.  I had to put it up because last week a bear came through and rummaged through one of the hives last weekend.  Thankfully he/she didn't destroy it, probably because there were no larvae and no honey there right now. But frames and top were tossed around. It's all put back together and protected now so I'm ready for the girls to show up!

Originally I was getting them on Monday, the 21st.  Now it will be Thursday, the 24th.  That will be a 3lb. package of bees.  I will also be picking up a Nuc (5 frames of bees) sometime soon too but I haven't a date yet.

What was interesting is that earlier this week, we had 70 degree weather and my greenhouse was full of bees!!! They must have wintered over in there where I had stored some hives and frames. So I guess I didn't lose all my bees ...most of them were lost to the cold though.  That was a sad day in January.

I do hope to plant some cold weather crops this weekend in the garden...lettuce, peas, kale, chard. Soon we'll see red buds on the trees and we'll be off and running with our summer season.

I see lots of work to be done outside.  I think I am going to hire someone to mow the lawn this year so that I have more time to do fun things in my time off. I'd rather be growing things, picking flowers, taking walks, hunting mushrooms and generally enjoying life than keeping up with the maintenance of a lawn. Plus, there's plenty of work to be done beyond the mowing.

But don't get me wrong.  My "lawn" is whatever is green and growing.  I do not use pesticides, or any other fertilizer on the lawn other than maybe a bit of compost here and there.  Mostly I just let whatever wants to grow grow.  I like putting down clover because the bees love it and like letting anything else flower that wants to.  Again the bees like it...and so do I.  I often will mow around anything flowering.

I hope to keep these bees well beyond the year.  It's too heartbreaking to lose them.  Wish me luck!!