honey bee flowers

 
 
Today my sister helped me fill and plant flowers in four big “honey bee pots” in my vegetable garden. These fit at the end of the rows between my raised beds. I want to attract my bees to my garden to pollinate the vegetables. So I selected flowers at the nursery that had honey bees on them. I enjoyed walking through the nursery and noticing how different flowers attract different bees. The honey bee pots I ended up with are not a mix of flowers I would have selected otherwise.…
 
MORE

watching the bees after a rainy day

3 Comments
 
 
It rained all day yesterday. My garden gauge registered just over an inch. I suppose the bees hung out in their crowded hives all day as well as the nights. And today, it was sort of cloudy and still seemed damp. I’ve read that a sunny day after rain is when bees will swarm, so I was watching as I worked in the garden. But they are still all at home. No swarms. My sister is visiting and she asked me how can you stop bees from out growing a…
 
MORE

again, I think they’re going to swarm soon

4 Comments
 
 
A couple weeks ago, I was very worried because I thought my bees were about to swarm and had foul brood. After lots of advice, it turns out I had seen a row of drone cells and a few uncapped queen cups. I had also noticed that the bees were beginning to store food in old brood frames, which surprised me and I thought there was something wrong like foul brood or other nasty disease. My beekeeper friends probably got tired of reassuring me that my hives were OK. And,…
 
MORE

where do my bees go?

1 Comment
 
 
I’ve been watching which flowers my bees are on. In May, I saw them on wild phlox, violas, crab apples and Carolina silverbell. honeybee on wild phlox, May 23 honeybee landing on a viola, May 23 honeybees on ajuga and honeysuckle, May 23 In June, black locust, beauty bush, Nepeta, wild rose and clover.
 
MORE

record keeping

 
 
I’m trying to figure out the best way to keep a record of my bees. First, I had Siri transcribe my observations, then just transferred that to a word document. But Siri doesn’t understand me very well and see certainly doesn’t know words like “brood box”. So now I have an excel table with lots of information. I jot down notes as I inspect the hives, then transfer it to the table later. I suppose this is OK, but I’m still working out what information I really need to record.…
 
MORE

are they getting ready to swarm?

1 Comment
 
 
Yesterday I inspected my two new bee hives. It’s the first time I’ve gone two weeks between inspections so I was really curious what I would find. One hive looks perfect and just as I expected. It’s 70% full, ready for a mite treatment and then a honey super. Maybe both at once. The other hive – well, not so good. The top box looked nice: I saw the queen and lots of eggs and larvae she had laid. Lots of stored food. But the bottom box was different. Pulling…
 
MORE

bee notes

 
 
For the past 5 weeks, Siri has recorded my bee notes for me. A good idea in theory, BUT I’m going to switch to an old-fashioned paper and pen notebook. Aside from my cell phone getting streaked with bee’s wax, its hard for me to translate what Siri records. Here’s my best translation from yesterday’s hive check: I’m checking my beehives. It’s early Monday morning, Memorial day. An over overcast morning and the smells are so amazing. The smell of flowers is heavy in the air (and burgers??). I’m going…
 
MORE

in the paper: effort to save bees, butterflies

 
 
This was in the Boston Globe yesterday. (link to article) US effort attempting to save bees, butterflies The Obama administration hopes to save the bees by feeding them better. A new federal plan aims to reverse America’s declining honeybee and monarch butterfly populations by making millions of acres of federal land more bee-friendly, spending millions of dollars more on research, and considering the use of fewer pesticides. While putting different types of landscapes along highways, federal housing projects, and elsewhere may not sound like much in terms of action, several…
 
MORE

bee notes

 
 
On Monday’s I do my hive checks. For now I’m doing these checks weekly.
 
MORE

bee notes

 
 
I opened both beehives this morning and moved two undrawn frames from the far left into the center. The green hive is a bit ahead of the white one and its outermost frames are now drawn, and only the two frames I just moved are empty. I didn’t pull out any of the active frames to check them since its only been 5 days since I last opened the hives. There were some large ants in the white beehive. I’m thinking that, with 9 frames in the hives (feeder frame…
 
MORE

Kathy Martin
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy


weeks and counting until my last spring frost

What I planted recently

Jan 21
thyme, lettuce, escarole

Feb 21
celery, celeriac, parsley, leeks

March 11
cabbage, kale, arugula



What I'm planting soon

April 1
peppers, eggplants, marigolds, beets

April 12
tomatoes, basil, sunflowers

Make your own customized planting calendar. Try out my app!
Apple/iOS

My garden this week

Browse by topic

17 years of archives!

Check out the food pantry farm I helped to start up:

Aurelia's Garden

Flickr

Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!

“I envision a day when every city and town has front and back yards, community gardens and growing spaces, nurtured into life by neighbors who are no longer strangers, but friends who delight in the edible rewards offered from a garden they discovered together.” – Greg Peterson

"What can happen to a seed is a miracle."

Posts by the month

August 2026
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

 

 

 

Website by:
Verve Marketing Group

Menu