We canned a lot of things this past wednesday.
Maybe Carly can update this post with some more info!
Author: JP
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mushroom hunting in central illinois
This past Friday we went mushroom hunting in a super-secret local spot. The key to finding mushrooms is going out a day or two after it rains. The soaked ground underneath decaying trees creates the perfect conditions for fungal growth.
In addition to a dozen or so species of fungi, we’re %90 certain we found some chanterelles, a choice edible. We cooked and tasted ’em (I didn’t try too much) and they were indeed delicious. I made a spore print, but the white spores were difficult to see on the white piece of paper that I used.
Mushrooms are so beautiful and interesting.
Link to the rest of my mushroom photos on flickr. -
Losing a Queen
Honeybees are prone to swarming. A swarm is a big cloud of bees that have left the hive looking for a new home. This is a natural part of their reproductive behavior, however in a back yard environment designed to maximize honey output, swarms pose a problem.
A couple weeks ago Robbie opened up both hives and noticed that in one there was no sign of a laying queen. Where there should have been cells filled with larvae at different stages of development there were instead empty cells. This indicates that either the queen died, or she took off with a swarm.
In this next photo you can see the slightly larger drone cells (where the male bees are hatched) and the very large queen cells that are perpendicular to the rest of the comb. This frame is in bad shape, and all signs indicate that bees had switched to reproductive mode.
Without a queen constantly hatching new workers, the hive would simply work itself to death and that would be the end of things. There were however many thousands of worker bees left in the hive, busy collecting what was left of the summer nectar flow. The solution to losing a queen is to simply get a new one. So Robbie contacted local bee expert, David, at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms and went to pick up a new queen. The new queen only cost about $20, and would save us the trouble of starting a new hive in the spring.
You can see her long abdomen through the screen with the little green dot to make her easy to spot. The little cage that she came is designed to help her assimilate with the bees already in the hive. Her potent pheromones waft through the screen controlling the army of workers. The bees then chew their way through a sugar plug (black tube thing) and release her into the hive. The delay while they work to set her free insures that she won’t just fly away once released.
Robbie installed the queen cage between the two big boxes, right in the middle of the brood chamber. In a week or two we’ll open the hive back up and see if there’s any signs of egg laying. Until then, fingers crossed.
You’ll notice how the hive on the left is much taller. When Robbie noticed the absence of a queen, he moved the top honey super over. He placed newspaper between to act as a temporary barrier while the bees in there got used to their new master. Oh the intrigue of beekeeping…
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UPDATE: mural at the independent media center
Below is the mural from about a month ago. The mural is a project by local artist Chris Hampson.
Chris decided to divide the mural into “picture frames” for people to fill in. (2 weeks ago)
There was painting party which I was unfortunately out of town for. Below is the mural after the party.
It seems that the mural is an evolving collaborative project that is meant to engage as many people as possible. Today I found this excellent panoramic photo-stitch of the mural on Daniel Schreiber’s blog about local art happenings (and chocolate). Super cool.
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fried pumpkin blossoms
Carly made some tasty fried pumpkin blossoms and I watched and took photos.
Cut the bottoms off the blossoms so you’re left with only the petals. Dip them in some beaten eggs mixed with milk (or soymilk). Then rub some bread crumbs and flour on them. Oil up a pan and throw em in. Let them fry until each side is getting a little golden. Then serve ’em to your hungry housemates.
Here’s what the blossoms look like with a bee chilling in there.
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building a legit hot compost pile
I recently attended a hot composting workshop in our neighborhood put on by a local artist who has been doing a lot of organizing this summer in preparation for a community dinner this weekend. Inspired to put into action the knowledge that was generously shared with me, I woke up this morning and decided to build a hot compost pile. We had all the necessary ingredients and tools already on hand, so I was able to get right to work.
First I went through the garden pulling out lots of weeds. The weeds would be the nitrogen rich materials needed for the pile. We have lots of weeds growing, so there was indeed an abundance. Thse plants bring nutrients up from deep below the soil, so in a way, the weeds are helping!
I had already cleaned out the chicken coop bedding which contained straw (carbon) and manure (more nitrogen). The next step was to shred the weeds with a lawnmower. This increases the surface area of the materials and speeds up the reaction. We got the mower for free from a friend, woohoo!
The last step was to build the pile. The goal is to create a mass
of alternating carbon and nitrogen layers. In between the layers you add water and some dirt or old compost (this primes the pile with all the needed microbes). That’s it: carbon, nitrogen, dirt, water, over and over, until you have a pile that’s about 3 x 3 x 3 feet. The finished pile didn’t make it quite tall enough, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I finished off the pile with a ring of chicken wire.
Thanks Gretchen for taking the photos! -
6 Tips for Lead Safe Gardening on Vimeo
My friend John E produced this video on soil testing using our yard. Ronna is in there digging soil. Too bad they didn’t actually do the test. Good info none-the-less!
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more about "6 Tips for Lead Safe Gardening on Vimeo", posted with vodpod -
identifying the plants in the yard
We recently had a house guest, Aaron, who works for the Chicago Park District maintaining parks and natural areas. He walked around the yard identifying everything he could. There were several prairie species, and lots of invasive weeds. We learned that the big pink flowers that the carpenter bees love is called Joe Pie Weed.
We also found the beautiful orange flowers of butterfly milkweed.
There were a couple plants the Aaron couldn’t recognize. I found the flickr photo pool called ID Please, where you upload photos of plants and animals you can’t identify and the people who troll that group ID them for you. I was able to identify this mallow plant and some comfrey that way.
Scroll through the slideshow to see some of the identified species.
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hygienic bee-havior for more natural bees
Robby-Bob and I went to another bee club meeting on Sunday. It was a special event for the club. An expert was there to discuss and demonstrate ways to test bees for hygienic behavior.
The reason this is important is because beekeepers routinely use chemicals to fight off infections and pests, usually to save themselves from economic ruin. To reduce the amount of chemicals beekeepers use, an effort is underway to selectively breed bees that resist the pests. One way for bees to protect themselves is to identify and remove cells in the hive that are infected. Bees that demonstrate hygienic behavior are those that remove larvae from damaged cells. To test for this trait, they selectively freeze/kill a section of larvae with liquid nitrogen and watch to see if the dead larvae are removed by the workers.
A steel can is smushed into the comb, and liquid nitrogen is poured inside to instantly kill the larvae inside. After 24 hours, the frames are inspected.
The frame on the LEFT is from a hive that does NOT show hygienic behavior. In the frame on the RIGHT, notice how the bees removed the larvae from all the cells leaving a circle of empty comb, a sign of hygienic behavior.Many people have heard of Colony Collapse Disorder, but bees are susceptible to a range of problems and so most beekeepers rely on some sort of chemical strategy to maintain their business. Breeding hygienic bees may ultimately lead to an industry less dependent on chemical inputs, meaning more ‘natural’, or ‘organic’ honey and wax (yay!). Of course I am oversimplifying this whole process. Hygienic behavior is actually much more complicated, especially when you approach it from the genetic side.
I was very lucky to be invited to the club meeting and demonstration, thanks Robby!I posted more photos of the meeting to this flickr set.
Also CEIBA wrote about the event (and used my photos!) on their website.
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Hives get taller
Head-beekeeper, Robby-Bob, came by yesterday and added a shallow super to both hives.
Based on the progress that was observed in the last bee post, the hives were past due for some extra expansion room. It took a little while to source the correct size frames for the shallower top boxes, and Robby installed them while I was in class. Ideally the bees will use the new frames mostly for honey that we can later harvest. Robby decided not to use a queen excluder, so there’s the potential that the queen will get up there and lay eggs. We have enough supplies for one more box on each hive depending on how well they take to the new frames.
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mas fotografias del jardin
These beetles did a serious number on our red raspberries this season.
Found some lemon cukes ready to pick, yum.
More super happy sunflowers.
A cabbage from a mac, john e, and kannan’s plot.
Leaf bug laying eggs on the barn. (photo by mac)
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Hive Tour 7/12/09
My good friends Kannan, and Mac helped me get a closer look inside out hives yesterday. Four weeks ago I put the second deep supers on each hive. The supers were full of bare frames, meaning the bees needed to build the comb before they could use them. Well, after checking out the hives I can say they are doing excellently. Lots of brood and some full frames of honey. There were even empty brood chambers where baby bees had already emerged. This means we probably need to add more space to allow the hive to continue to grow.The diagram on the left is similar to our hives, (different lid and different number of frames) but it gives you an idea of how the hives are constructed. Its a fairly simple design. Wooden frames are suspended inside a box, and the boxes are stacked up. The bees then build honeycomb on both sides of each frame. I had some handy helpers, so we were able to take clean photos of each frame. I cropped all the photos in a similar way so you can flip through each cross section of the hive. As you get towards the middle you’ll notice that there is less honey and more brood. The queen lays eggs in a somewhat predictable pattern, and experienced beekeepers use that to judge the quality of the hive.
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