Meanwhile in the Garden: Peas!

We've been enjoying fresh peas from the garden lately. Here are a couple pics I took when the peas were in blossom. Trish stakes them with bamboo.

I think simple preparation is best for peas. I like them raw, or just lightly steamed. Of course they are always good in a salad or stir-fry, too. How do you like to cook peas?

A Hive in a Hurry

This week Trish hurried to finish a hive for our friends Yun and Jade because their hive split. The swarm of bees took up residence in their neighbor's yard, and they called a local bee expert to collect the swarm. The bees waited for a couple days in a screened (ventilated) box (courtesy of the bee expert) while Trish finished up building a hive. Then yesterday she went over and helped install the bees in their new home.

Meanwhile the two hives in our yard are very active, and both seem to be growing every day. Trish thinks the hive by the garden may split/swarm, too, so she is going to add a fourth box to the hive soon.

Remember that if you're in the Seattle area and interested in a Warre hive, let us know as Trish would love to build you one. You might very well be able to get a swarm for your hive as this is a great season for bees so far, and I would think that many local hives will split/swarm.

Bees in Lavender

I snapped some photos in our garden today, and I happened to catch a couple of bees enjoying the lavender on the south side of the house. Bear in mind that I have a point and shoot digital camera, so these are not the best quality photos!

First off, here's a honeybee in the lower left corner of the first shot. Of course I can't know for sure that this bee lives in one of our hives, I'd bet that she does.

Then here's another kind of bee toward the center of this second shot. Not sure what kind of bee this is. It's a black color with a bit of yellow and white. We think of these as bumblebees, but they aren't the big kind. If you happen to know what kind of bee this might be, please do leave a comment on this post and let me know.

There are so many varieties of bees out in the world, enjoying the different blooms they find. It's a pleasure to see both in our yard.

Warm May Weather, Active Bees

I've lived in the Seattle area my whole life, and I can't remember such a long streak of summer-like weather in May. Well, apparently this is the longest rain-free streak in May since 1946 and 1958.

The bees are super-active, as you might guess. Here are two pictures I snapped today, both showing the hive in the backyard. The other hive is located in the side yard, and it's also been plenty busy.

It's been interesting to have two hives to be able to compare and contrast. The bees in the side yard have always seemed more boisterous, something we noticed the day we picked them up. We heard them buzzing as we drove home from Beez Neez, while the other bees were silent. Trish thinks that possibly the side yard bees are sometimes going into the hive of the backyard bees to rob them of some honey, but we can't be sure.

In other bee news, Trish had a look through the observation windows of the backyard hive this morning and was pretty sure she saw some brood emerging from cells of comb. The timing sounds about right: I read that it takes 21 days for a worker bee to hatch.

I wish I could get a picture that shows how you can look up into the air near the hives and watch the bees heading back and forth. They're pretty high up, like 10-12 feet or more, I'd say. There are so many of them flying so quickly on their looping paths. I've compared them to bottle rockets before in a poem, and today they reminded me of stunt pilots.

The Bees Are Settling In

Last Wednesday (April 17) we were lucky to have a sunny day for our drive to Snohomish to pick up two packages of honeybees. Even better, the sunny weather made for a perfect afternoon to install the packages into the hives. This is our first year having two hives instead of just one.

Trish has become quite the pro as far as the bee installation goes. My job is more to make sure our two cats stay inside during the process because they're very curious and want to interfere (I think if we could ask them, they would say they're "helping"). Right when we got home, one of the cats sort of leapt/charged at the package that was waiting near one of the hives. Anyway, the cat wrangling is the easy part.

The more complicated part, of course, is Trish's role as the bee-installer. Over time, she's come up with a lot of ways to make this easier. For example, she lays out all her tools on a bench she puts near the hive so that everything she needs is just at hand (smoker, pliers, bee brush, etc). She also has learned that it works best to cut away more of the screen from the bee package rather than to try to force all the bees out of the small hole at the top (the first year, we'd watched a YouTube video where the beekeeper shook the package until all the bees came out the hole, and most of them do come out, but many of them linger in the package, and it's easier to get those bees out by just cutting away one of the walls of the package). Well, I'll have to ask Trish for a list of tips she's put together. This was her third time installing packages of bees.

From an observer's perspective, the process went pretty quickly, but I'm sure it felt longer for Trish inside her protective gear. The bees have been very busy and active in their first week here, even over the weekend when the weather was on the rainy side. Go, bees!

Bees Coming This Wednesday

This Wednesday is our bee pick-up day at Beez Neez in Snohomish. Unfortunately, the bees in our backyard didn't make it through the winter, so Trish is installing a new package of bees. Also, she's decided to start a second hive in the yard. We'll have one hive in the backyard and another in the side yard. We have a nice wide space in the side yard where the bees can live, with ample space between the hive and the neighbor's yard.

Did your bees winter over? Are you getting new bees this year? Are you just starting a hive? We'd love to know if you have a moment to share!

We Bought a Goji Plant

Today we bought an established goji plant from a local gardener who is selling her collection of plants. We're looking forward to seeing how it does this spring and summer--and how the bees like it, too, of course! I'd love to discover that we can do well enough with goji berries here that I could put my food dehydrator to good use with them.

In the meantime, when it comes to berries to eat, we'll keep buying our organic goji berries from SunFood--I actually signed up for an affiliate account with them because they have the best organic goji we've found.

Back to gardening, Trish planted peas in the garden at the end of February, as well as some potatoes. Last year the biggest success in the garden was the cucumber plant--I hope this year will be a repeat. We enjoyed Greek salads with garden cucumbers all summer.

How is your yard/garden coming along as spring is (finally!) around the corner?

Hands off Bees in the Local News

Our local news blog, PhinneyWood, which covers the Greenwood and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods of Seattle (and nearby areas), just posted an article about Trish's backyard beekeeping and the hives she builds.

Thanks to Sarah who wrote the article, Doree who manages the blog, and everyone who is visiting the blog (and our Facebook page) as a result of reading the article!

Growing Goji Berries

I did a bit more reading about goji berries and bees, and I started thinking that the goji berry plants could be a bee-friendly addition to our yard. Plus, the health benefits of goji honey would be good for honeybees as well as people.

I found an organic nursery in California (Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply) that sells a variety of goji berry tree started from a plant in Utah. The folks at the nursery have produced a helpful video about planting and maintaining goji berries which I've embedded below. Trish and I are thinking about planting a couple in containers.

Goji Berries for People and for Bees

Trish is a great fan of goji berries. She buys the dried ones and adds them to the "green drinks" she makes in her Vitamix. Other ingredients for the green drinks include spinach, pear, and a variety of vegetables and fruits. They say these little berries have high concentrations of antioxidants, vitamin A, and all sorts of helpful compounds which we probably don't understand yet. Anyway, I got to thinking about bees and goji berries, and sure enough, the plants are a favorite of honeybees in China. Check out this page with beautiful close-up photos of bees and goji berry plants taken by Zachary Huang of Michigan State University. The author also has other articles with tips on "beetography" (or photographing bees).