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!

[WestwardHo]

This part of the country is all alkyline. The creek that runs through our area is the Salado (means salt).
The trees came from a big commercial tree farm that only deals with large companies, but will sell to locals.
They told me all they would need is ironite.
Two years ago I put in a yellow honey locust from Walmart...maybe 10ft tall, 1” trunk. I water it like crazy, feed it all kinds of stuff, and it’s gorgeous! It loves everything I do..and it’s in the same soil!
My New Mexico garden book suggests watering once a month until it get really hot...

[dervish]

“Monsanto may be many things, but they are not the monster that certain groups make them out to be. Without many of the chemicals developed and produced by Monsanto, including worm-resistant corn and weevil-proof cotton varieties, the world would be a hungrier and less-dressed place to live”

Bump.

I am tired of the demonization of Monsanto. The left’s green movement is pushed by people who have never been poor or hungry.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

[tubebender]

Dittos to that...

[wm25burke]

Awesome bee pictorial. I’m on the waiting list with the local bee club to acquire a colony when one becomes available after having been removed.

Please put me on your gardening ping list.

Thanks.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I did a cutout 3 days ago that was a breeze ... lots of bees, but only two small pieces of comb. It was a new swarm that had moved into a wall and was just beginning to build.

I have a removal coming up Saturday morning that I am dreading. I know the hive is at least 7 years old and is at least 8-9 feet long and 2-4 feet wide. We won't know exactly until we start removing siding, but I'm guessing at least 1/4 million bees. Will probably make 2 or 3 hives out of that one as I have some queens we're raising in nucs right now.

[Darth Reardon]

Where does this all end? Seems like at some point you would have enough bees, but it doesn’t sound like you’ll ever run out of supply. Sell them? Rent them out to orchards or farms? Launch a preemptive bee strike against the Canadians?

[tubebender]

I could use a couple of active hives to pollinate my strawberries and raspberries but it is too cool for the Busy Bee to work here. Honey is always in demand as long as JADB has the time to harvest it and farm and garden at the same time....

[wm25burke]

Oops - must've been the wrong hat!