Honey is Sweet but...

We have a new beehive in our neighborhood! It's kind of like being a new parent--exciting and scary. We sort of know what we're doing, but we're also winging it. I am a very pragmatic beekeeper. I think it's my dad's influence. I want to be quick, gentle, and efficient with no fooling about. That way the bees can get back to their work. I was told these bees were gentle, so we didn't smoke them. J and I are interested in being as non-invasive as possible. In hindsight, I think smoke would have helped "herd" these bees who really didn't want me to scrape off their beautiful burr comb. We are also going to try sugar water and thyme tea sprayed into the hive as recommended by a biodynamic beekeeper.

The bees were pretty happy, with some larva and some honey in the comb. They're just getting started, but they sure wanted to build natural comb rather than use Mr. Langstroth's clever calculation of bee space. They prefer life outside the frame. Rudolph Steiner would be proud of these bees!

We were a bit concerned that they were building queen cells, but apparently they practice once in a while in the middle of the comb. We should scrape these off.

Since they had consumed the sugar water and begun to build comb in the feeder, we decided to take it out and let the bees rob it. I tried to fit another frame in the hive, but it just didn't fit. This is where I got frustrated and should have taken a time out. I made a quick movement and bam! Two stings on my left hand right through my garden gloves. One guard bee chased J accross the street and stung her on the nose. Honey is sweet, but the bee stings. Baking soda mixed with water soothed the pain a tiny bit.

The next day we had a 2 Block Diet plant sale to raise money for our hive. I wore my new Madame Beespeaker outfit.

It was Car Free Day on Main Street, so we had fun people watching and telling interested folks what we were up to.

The wheelbarrow above was a station where you could pot up your own chard. I bought some lovely yellow pear tomato plants to put in my garden. I can't wait to eat these in a salad with some nice chevre. Thanks to everyone who donated plants!

Mead Moon

It's June and masses of roses appear suddenly, as if in a fairy tale. Sunflowers and corn grow quickly in the cool evening air. Suddenly it's too hot for comfort during the day and I worry about bringing fish home from the store in case it spoils while I wait for my son in the playground. Suddenly it's too hot to plant those cool weather greens and I'm out in the back yard with my watering can every evening. Bees of all shapes and sizes are foraging through palettes of pollen--the dark black mascara of poppies, the rusty hue of lupin dust to the light bright spores from California lilacs. A tiny bee I cannot name lands on my beige shorts. She is up to her armpits in neon yellow pollen. A honey bee carries a dead worker from inside the hive up over the rocks and well away from the front of the hive while the queen lays over 1, 500 eggs a day. The new comb begins to fill with light-colored honey.

June sits easily in our bones. It's the restless days of school almost over and the fat strawberry horizon of summer sunsets. It's piano recitals and dusty sports days. June berries, green corn, lazy days of cold suppers and a glass of mead in the back yard. Wish you were here. Happy birthday sis!










Algonquin: When they Hill Indian Corn, Honey Moon, Hot Moon, Strawberry Moon, Rose Moon
Abernaki: Hoer moon
Choctaw: Windy Moon
Omaha: Buffalo moon
Assiniboine: Full Leaf Moon
Taos: Corn Tassel Moon
Northern Arapaho: When the hot weather begins
Cree: The month leaves come out
Kalapuya: Camas Ripe
Lakota: Moon when the June berries are good.
Tlingit: Birth moon
Sioux: Green grass Moon
Mohawk: Ripening Moon
Potawatomi: Turtle Moon
Lakota: Making Fat Moon
Wishram: Fish Spoils Moon
Anishnaabe: Strawberry Moon:
Cherokee: Green Corn Moon, Flower Moon
Full Janic: Mead Moon
Chinese: Lotus Moon
Celtic: Horses’ Moon

Fallen Pollen

Last week I lead another hive tour at UBC Farm for the Landed Learning Program's Family Day. It's lovely to see students with their parents and siblings sharing the pride of their garden beds. By this time of the year the students have become confident enough to give tours of the gardens to show their parents the peas, kale, and lettuce they have grown from seed.

I found this little guy catching a few rays on a blade of grass near the raspberry canes.

There were some great workshops on offer, including how to tap maple syrup, cooking blackberry jam, a birding table, a lesson is pressing flowers and an art station.

Each group of students gives their garden bed a name, like Fallen Pollen.




I ran into Mr. G, the UBC Farm beekeeper, and asked him about the teaching hive. He said they were getting overcrowded and trying to swarm. He had to come back very few days to knock out the queen cells they were creating. He also said there was a distinct lack of bee forage in this location at this time of the year and next year the farm should consider cover crops for mid May such as buckwheat and phacelia. Mr. G said he is already getting honey off his hives at Van Dusen Gardens. The blackberries are just starting to bloom and the farm is also surrounded by salmon berries and thimble berries, but I guess there are just not quite enough to create get the honey flowing at this time of the year.

Mr. G had put on a small super since the last time I opened the hive, so it was full of new light-colored comb with a bit of honey in it. The bees were on high alert because the beekeeper had already disturbed them once that day. IMO the farm should have at least two teaching hives so they don't stress out the one hive by opening them up multiple times in one day.

While giving the tour I met a hobby beekeeper who says he had eight hives in his back yard and was looking for a place to put more hives. Sounds like his urban bees are thriving!

Purple Vista

There are many shades of purple at the MOP Garden right now, and the bumble bees are really working those lupins. You should drop by to watch and listen. It's very calming.

The irises are pretty to look at, but don't interest the bees much.

Eat your heart out Monet! This would be a great place to set up an easel.

We're having lovely sunny weather, but it means I've got to get down there and water the garden more often.

Calendula!

I've planted some Dragon's Head, which is an herb "much loved by bees." I also planted some Cherokee Trail of Tears beans in between the tall sunflowers.

Yellow yarrow is popular this year. I've seen it in a few gardens in the neighborhood.

Bumble Bees in Bleeding Hearts

I like the semi-industrial spaces in Vancouver, especially when the artists use these liminal spaces to practice their various forms of creative expression, kind of like urban pollinators working in the spaces between busy roads and concrete warehouses. There are loads of studios around Clark and Porter, and some quirky little garden spaces that are droning with native bumble bees. If you look very closely at the photo above you can see a little bumble bee looking for nectar in these bleeding heart flowers. This shady little oasis is very close to the extremely busy thoroughfare of Clark Street. I had a very inspiring walk around the neighbourhood.


At the side of this building, which is painted a fresh green-gold color is a lovely xeriscape garden that is fantastic for bees. They love this variety of Spanish lavender.


This silvery sage fits is very well next to the lavender foliage.

Look at the color relationship here with the blossoms and the stucco.

I was also struck by the yellow color of this studio.

It's picked up and repeated with the yellow school buses that are parked here when they are resting.


Some of the curbside gardens in this neighborhood have been very carefully sculpted.


This cat is the personification of summer relaxation--stretched out flat in the cool shade of a balcony. I want to do that!

I am intrigued by mosaic park, but it offers little in the way of bee forage.

These curbside gardens are fantastic, and I like the way the mosaic motif with picked up in the colors of the flowers.

Look at the varying shades of these simple poppies and the way they all catch the sun.