Yesterday I took a spring yard work breather and walked back to the apple trees to see how pollination was coming. Looks like few apples again this year as unfortunately all I found was a single honey bee flitting amongst the blossoms. Not much today either but the carpenter bees were working so maybe there's hope for some apples if the squirrels don't eat them all again. A single bee came around when I was cleaning out my hives, but apparently was just looking as he did not come back.
The big maple tree is finally gone, 4 hard months cleaning it up by myself. Made table slabs from the main trunk and got about a thousand bf. (winter project). Had the stumps ground down but trying to dig out the roots was a bear. Put in another flower garden where the maple tree was, with some annuals this time and put a Red-Bud in the center.
Acquired a dozen Heather plants from Michigan Bulb and put them in the ground in the bee garden (my wife doesn't know that all the flower gardens are for the bees). They were 4" pots so it will take awhile for them to grow. I also ordered 2 Oak-leaf Hydrangea's, suppose to be great bee plants too.
Pick up my 2 packages of bees on the 11th, can't wait. Started building another octagon hive, this one slightly bigger as I'm going to put wider bars on the two ends for more honey storage I am also going to support the top bar combs with wire supports, have a wire bender coming soon. The hives will be slightly larger but also shorter by 2" as I found the long combs have a tendency to break when I examine them. Being shorter and having wire support should do the trick. Happy summer. Later
The big maple tree is finally gone, 4 hard months cleaning it up by myself. Made table slabs from the main trunk and got about a thousand bf. (winter project). Had the stumps ground down but trying to dig out the roots was a bear. Put in another flower garden where the maple tree was, with some annuals this time and put a Red-Bud in the center.
Acquired a dozen Heather plants from Michigan Bulb and put them in the ground in the bee garden (my wife doesn't know that all the flower gardens are for the bees). They were 4" pots so it will take awhile for them to grow. I also ordered 2 Oak-leaf Hydrangea's, suppose to be great bee plants too.
Pick up my 2 packages of bees on the 11th, can't wait. Started building another octagon hive, this one slightly bigger as I'm going to put wider bars on the two ends for more honey storage I am also going to support the top bar combs with wire supports, have a wire bender coming soon. The hives will be slightly larger but also shorter by 2" as I found the long combs have a tendency to break when I examine them. Being shorter and having wire support should do the trick. Happy summer. Later
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