Farming and Gardening

Ugh! I thought swarming season (for honeybees) would have been pretty much done for this year. I guess since the weather has been so *bleep* wet this year, they haven't had much of a chance to branch out and set up a new shop. I just strolled down for a boo at the bees and noticed my primary hive was looking pretty quiet for such a nice day. After listening closely,  and looking around a little bit, sure enough I found that the hive had swarmed. They were only about 20 feet away, but at least 20 feet up the tree and in woods. The tree they had chosen was only about a 4 inch trunk if that, so I went and suited up then came back with the necessary gear. I decided to whack the tree with a sledge initially and quickly duck back out of the way, as despite being suited up I wasn't terribly keen on the idea of shaking the tree by hand and having a couple gallons of disturbed bees falling right on  me. No problem, but clearly the queen hadn't come loose as within less than a minute the swarm was beginning to gather in the same spot. I went back and shook the tree hard and obviously freed the queen up as now the swarm was gathering on a smaller 15 foot sapling 4 feet away. I had to prune a few branches of nearby trees so I could bend the sapling to within reach and not disturb the bunch. Everything went pretty smoothly and I relocated the whole bunch into a 5 gallon pail, which I soon dumped into a spare nucleus colony I keep close at hand. Now I'm just giving things an hour or so to quiet down and see if they're gonna settle in until I ready another full size hive for them to call  the new pad. Fun fun fun!

crushed egg shells is fairly effective there too. Oh yeah, and another pretty good tactic is shredded dry straw, but only until it gets soaked

My fingers are crossed with you grey.

Well things were rough for bees all around here this year as the rain was just relentless all Summer. Pollen stores were particularly lacking on my last inspection as the rains likely washed much of it off most flowers and onto the ground. Foraging in all the rain was a tall order too for the poor wet-winged critters. At least I bought and distributed in the hives, some pollen cakes early this month so they weren't going to go totally without. (though it pales to natural local stuff they select and gather themselves) Now, 3 of my hives are strong, 1 is pretty decent, and the fifth one (latest swarm I captured) is still a fairly weak hive. I guess time will tell. A mild Winter would be nice.
(I say mother nature owes us after robbing us of anything even resembling a Summer) 

Well, on the downside, I finally got around to digging my spuds yesterday. What a disappointment that was. I bet I only got 20-30 pounds of spuds, and few were even as big as a tennis ball. (I blame global warming   ) Despite this area not getting anything resembling Summer this year, I still expected at least double what I got. Cold, wet, and always cloudy takes quite a toll obviously. Veggies like peas and beans molding and rotting right on the plant. I'd say I got well under a quarter of the produce from my garden this year that I should have. 

Yeah, I've put them in a salad a couple of times and they were good there, but I seldom bother with all the work. I think I'm gonna try drying some and putting them into stews, breads, or pastas. I already do that with my beet greens and quite like the result. (other than the coloration maybe) Very healthy and nutritious. I also started on a dandelion wine pursuit a few years ago but abandoned the endeavor once I realized just how much effort was required. (nearly 2 hours and not even 1/4 breadbag of the petals, packed) T'was a treat for the compost pile.

The mushroom growing experiment I'm trying is still looking pretty good but things are progressing at 1/2 the rate I was led to expect, if that. I think it'll likely still be a good month before I spread the spawn in a tub of compost and try to grow the actual mushrooms, but still, it's an interesting undertaking with potential.

As stubborn as I tend to be, it seems like the mushroom mycelium is still more stubborn than I am. The whole affair still seems to be going well but at a far, far slower pace than I expected. We'll see if I get any mushrooms in 2019, but I'm growing doubtful at this pace. If it all works out eventually, it is plainly obvious that one will need to grow at least 3 or 4 cultures at a time, and cycle things so the harvest is perpetual