One of the plants I learned about at the high park steward was golden rod.
Idea: Huglakultur ... is that how you spell it :). I will try to make a flower bed with it to start.
I have a downed tree near my neighbour's fence
I don't have a Chain saw.... so I will see if I can use it for fire wood. Our turn it into a Huglakultur bed.
Research:2
I went for a weekend visit to see what flowers and insects I had and also see what the bee population looks like.
Check out the video:
More research:
I have been looking around and keeping my eyes opened for flowers the bees love before the flower season ends here in Toronto.
I got a Two for One September 2nd while I was taking a walk from Volunteering at the Gardiner Museum. Bees and Monarch butterflies.
I sat and watched them for a bit. I tried figuring out what flower this was but failed. So if you know please leave me a comment :)
I have bergamot on my property and it looks similar to this but not exactly. The one on the property is a lighter purple this one is a beautiful deep purple. And this one had smaller flowers.
I became curious so I picked some really dried flowers and took a look inside.
I think these are super cool looking seeds made for wind dispersal due to the fuzzy tops. Side not. The fuzzy part is soft it made me think of a paint brush.
So anyway. I dried them spread out overnight packages some then put a few to germinate to see if they would. If they don't I will be sad and then maybe I will not need to keep the package I made.
Ok wait I have a back up plan. I also took some clippings home and put them in water to see if they would root.
With a bit of luck I will have then to plant next growing season. Yea it has started to get cold.
Its now September 21, 2017
The clippings i took home have dried up. Too bad I was really hoping.
So I focused my attention to the seeds I pulled from the dried flowers. One. One sprouted. I saw life I was so excited I planted it right away put him in a Ziplock blew air in there closed it crossed my fingers and waited. 2 days later I got this little baby in the picture below. *Happy bear scream*
Setting up the homestead to grow my own food. It's August and I am going to start experimenting with learning how to grow Red Beans or Kidney Beans or Red Peas.
The journey is to grow the things I actually eat first the branch out and experiment with new flavors
August 27 :- location Toronto apartment
Put 10 beans in a bottle of water to soak overnight. Then totally forgot about them so they were soaking for 24 hours.
Then put them them in a wet paper towel and and a zip lock bag . Blew air in the bag locked it and put them by the window.
They all turned to mush and we're really stinky.... so let's they that again.... without the forgetting about them part >.<
Bee Obsessed!
I love bugs. I did a course in Entomology for my zoology degree and I loved it. What I found the most fun in the course was the bug display we made. The assignment was to travel around the Island (I was living in Jamaica at the time) and collect various insects. We were to identify them by General name and scientific name, state the location they were caught and state a few interesting facts. Oh I had so much fun seeing what our friends caught and trading our bug collection. I think the most fun was traveling around the island with my dad collecting all those bugs. We both had a great time and it is one of my fondest memories. That and my other assignment for my Business Environment course where we went to visit the Shrimp Farm. Me and my dad had some great times. You will see him around here on my vblog where he helped me build my shed.
I look back on those days quite happy as I go on my journey.
Random Bee Picture: The Eastern Carpenter Bee
Well unto my bee obsession. As you can already tell I get obsessed frequently :)
Watch this video :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxQvqOcZt94&t=251s I took it on my property to watch the bees there. I also wanted to track the bees to their nest like i saw a scientist do in his video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAt0pkag9YY&t=338s but the bees did not take the bait... they just went along foraging the flowers and totally ignoring my tastey sugar water....as If to say you want me to eat what!...absurd!
I have a lot of bumble bee on my property this year. I love those big fuzzy bees ...they go perfectly with the yolybear image ....lol
But I also have a wide variety of bug life.... some more annoying than others for example I am not crazy about the horse flies but I am super excited about the Dragon flies. I will try and solve the horsefly issue later. they bite .... ouch
Algonquin Dragonfly guide
High Park Native Bee Club
I joined the native bee club at High Park in Toronto. We spend our Saturday mornings learning about and observing the native bees.
The club leader is Susan Frye and right now in 2017 she is a PhD candidate from the University of Toronto with a passion for our native bees. She carries the below book The Bees in Your Back Yard that she will pull out form time to time to tell us about a particular bee or to show us an up close amazing picture.
Bumble bees , digger wasps, Andrea Integra miner bees
Here is a video of what I found interesting at bee club this year 2017.
Associations:
Toronto:I have also found the Urban Toronto Beekeepers. In 2017 , They have meetings held on the first Tuesday of every month at the Faculty of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.
Anthropology Building, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2. Check the website just to be sure. I put this here so I can remind myself too ...LOL I will be attending the next meeting.
Near Perth: Limestone Beekeepers Guild: Active on facebook. so I will check them out there until I get a chance to join them in person some day.
The Dream
I would love to have a honey bee hive but i need to do some work first getting their food source ready. So first thing next year i will be getting the flower garden started. For now i will have fun planning the flower garden and learning about. I hope to find a Class this spring and figure out what this master beekeeping exams is. http://www.easternapiculture.org/
I have also been listening to some beekeeping pod casts on Sticher Radio
Links I hope to have as I expand my knowledge on bees.
Link to flower garden planning:
Bee food
Building the hive
Bee by products
Bee diseases , pests and pesticides
Record keeping
Winter hive maintenance
Exploring Different Beekeeping Methodologies
Random Honey Bee spotting : What flower is this
Food :
Native bees like the bumblebee and the honey bee compete for the same food source and so you need to plant enough flowers so all can thrive.
Look up hive feeders
Honey bee food: sugar mix = 1:1 sugar water
Wetland flowers: jewel weed
Hives:
To encourage native bees you can build solitary bee hotels: watch out for woodpeckers and airways you may just be feeding them.
Mount them to a fence as this is not natural to the predators.
Make sure your hives are level or the bees will build unevenly and this will be bad for inspections and keeping an orderly hive.
Bee diseases , pests and pesticides:
Be careful of the pesticides and fertilisers you use on your crops as they will spread to your flower gardens and affect your bees.
Record keeping:
To keep track of what is going on in your hives.
Box name, occupants name, track the deminor of your hive usually based on the queen,
Winter hive maintenance:
Check hive numbers of bees
Check for the mites and their numbers
Build new frames and boxes
Check their food stores
Two for one Sundays :) Both The Honey Bee and Monarch
Exploring Different Beekeeping Methodologies and Theories
Slow beekeeping methodology
Slow Food International and the British Beekeepers Assoc. (BBKA).
Using the detailed scientific study of bees to care for bees. Balance between what the bees need and the needs of the beekeeper.
Temparate bee Ecotypes in temperate bees explores the relationship between bees and flowering plants. Bees are distinguished by nest architecture, brood pattern and swarming patterns. Flowers adapted with displays for their reproduction at it is important for the reproduction of bees as well.
Internal and external stimuli that make bees swarm such as food resources in a particular area.
Tracheal mites and veroa mites cause wide spread loss of bees and genetic diversity and increased medication of bees which makes then increasingly less effective at pollination.
Sustainable approach practices
Bee health and adequate nutrition. Need a range of flower pollen. Different plants will pass on variety of nutrients.
Bee foraging and assess the forage in the local area. Planting up for the bees to bridge the gap of the seasons.
Feeding the bees their own sealed honey.
And so when does the beekeeper harvest. Harvest the following spring. One bar of honey for every 2 frames of brood. Stores should be close by so they don't need to go far during the winter and adjust the size of the hive to as small as possible.
Hive density and distance to keep colonies further apart is better for the bees.
Swarming allows the bees to propagate.
Hive requirements of the bees is dry cubic capacity preference is a top bar hive for natural practice of less imports and natural comb Building promotes diversity in comb that may help pest decrease. And allow a few seasons for the bees to build. May Avoid chemical complications of industrial chemicals in the wax or plastics as the bees spend a lot of time in the development stage.
Queen selection no importation of none local bees. Unless it is your intention to import genes and characteristics but be careful of importing bad characteristics and diseases and suseptabilities.
Inspection frequency and methods such as smoking and alternatives such as water spraying and damp cloth covering.
Its october: --I will work on getting these thoughts together ...notes from the association meeting lots of information to chew on
Just gonna Write some notes here: Lots of considerations from pod casts and meetings:here goes
OMAFRA - bee registration - december - article on winter management
Intergrative pest management
B-L discussion board
Canadian Honey council
University of montana online course
OBA - new Apiology 101 - online introductory course
Winterizing:
Bees can survive -30 degrees
Winter bees (lifespan 150 days) are significantly different from summer bees (lifespan 30 days), dont feed winter bees pollen they may start producing more summer bees and cause bee die off. feed sugar water. bee feeding options build a box to put the sugar water on the hive cover the sugar water (4 gallons per collony) with straw. bucket with sugar water away from the hive top with grass. cute: if you feed bees grape soda you get purple honey
need: high quality queen adequate honey and pollen stores, and brood
recommended 7 frames of bees
wrap hives in hive wrap: availiable at wellington beekeeping association: correogated black plastic shaped like a box to cover the bee box. remeber they need ventilation holes bottom entrance reducer and drill a intrance hole near the top of the hive and protect that too helps with ventilation: cover those well so snow doesnt block them
the bear fence came up again
Honey labels: gourmet honey: plant their gourmet flower diet.- apple orchard blossom honey , lavendar field, hemp/marijuana field happy honey....they going to test the honey for the benifits. havest often will encourage the bees to forage. store in freezer and give them back if they dont have enough stores for winter level it out away from the hive they will bring it in
how was your year section:
Treat for mites very well or your hive numbers will magically disappear. the member seem to use alot of chemical treatments and sometimes it kills the bees :(
raining alot is bad for bee forage
wax moths are a pain - what eats wax moths
discussed catching swarms and preventing swarming and checking your newly aquired swarm for mites
discussed queen loss is a mystery problem
wasps will kill bees- and there are alot of wasps this season, wasp traps? do they also catch bees?
what is a good brood pattern
Is there control over honey prices by OBA? what about other bee products, honey as a medication for infections and bites
easier ways to harvest honey
Aveloa - bees as a mothers day present?
Worksops in the spring get ready: honey tasing workshop january $300 (yikes)
most people inspect bees every 2 weeks
bees will move the honey down into the broad box...maybe give them space to do that?
spoke about drying rooms to get moisture out of uncaped honey
illegic reactions to stings:epipens benigril,zentac natural plantain lee valley has a battery operated thing for the swelling
Orchard Setup for my Homestead May to June 2017
To recap I have a few fruits planted already. I bought them from home depot.
The tress and bushes and vines I have already that cost me total of $70 are:
1 cherry, 1 apple, 1 grape vine, 1 blueberry bush
Ok that's enough of that buying plants nonsense! Momentary Insanity. I am thinking ....If I buy all my plants I would be spending a fortune that i don't have
July - August 2017
I know that planting seeds that come from the grocery store are unpredictable and the usual case is they will not fruit and if they do the fruit may not taste good. But until I can find the seed packets to buy I will try the supermarket seeds. I will do this to practice and increase my Germination skills.
Cherries::Germination experiment
I ate a some yummy cherries ... and got 138 cherry seeds to play around with. ... ha ha ha
I started these in my apartment. I don't have a greenhouse yet
I cracked the seeds on half of them to take the seed out
Took 10 seeds and straight germinated then using a towel and ziplock bag and put the rest in the fridge:
Results for the 10 germinated with no fridge time : 2 germinated the other 8 molded ...eww
Lesson 1: Cherries need a period in the fridge to sprout
The picture shows the different stages i saw
first the seeds (cotyledons) turned green and they split
a tiny root emerges from the bottom and tiny first leaves emerge from the middle
I then take it out the paper towel and planted them in a cup and cut out some drainage holes
After 8 weeks in the fridge (took me that long to baby the 2 that germinated not to die)
Took 5 more seeds out the fridge and towel germinated those
Results for the 5 germinated with 8 weeks fridge time : 4 turned green and are looking promising
To be continued:......... I will start naming them so I can keep track.
August 2:
I am super charged and ready to do some projects this weekend... however 2 days ago my husband hurt his knee and had to wear an ice pack. I twisted my knee on the subway, no ice pack but I and still limping and careful when going up and down stairs cause I still feel a little pinch. Although I feel better than yesterday I feel like this weekend we will only have 2 working knees between the 2 of us.
In other news: Mom found a picknick table top so all we need to do now is make the legs. Mom also found an old dolly which she said needs some love but we should be able to use it. Let's see what we can do with it.
August 4: Today I have a cold and it snuck up on me our of nowhere. I sense it going to be a whiny baby sort of weekend. But still going to have a great time. The plan is to scale back on the projects and get some rest and relaxation and test the theory that the country air is good for you.
August 8 :
Back home from our trip....here is the video. Enjoy :)
