Garden Geekery

So, this is a bit of a long story: Earlier this year, I ordered a package of bees to replace the colony that didn’t make it through the winter. They were supposed to be ready for pickup the first week of…

So my husband recently received Google Glass through his employment. Briefly, Glass is Google’s newest attempt at wearable tech: A thing you wear like a pair of glasses but that projects email et al. on a tiny screen just above your line…

A brief diversion from bees today. I’ve been planning out some new raised beds for vegetables and have been searching for the best wood preservative that won’t leach toxic nastiness into the soil. A little context: Pressure-treated wood today no…

So I totally slacked off in updating this blog since last fall. Figured I’d try to catch up with just the highlights before things start to get hectic again. Going into the winter, Andoria looked nice and strong; Vulcan seemed…

Changed a few things on my bee blog. You can now get notified of new posts via email by subscribing, and I finally have threaded comments enabled. Should adapt better to mobile devices, as well, in case you just can’t…

Robbing: a sad but pretty incredible phenomenon to witness. Honeybees have a sense of smell at least as good as a dog (and are in fact replacing dogs in some bomb-sniffing situations). When you leave frames of honey sitting outside…

Checked Andoria this past weekend. This was the hive that has had no brood at all for weeks, and the one to which I introduced a new queen last week. I was super excited to see capped brood and larvae…

Experienced beekeepers tend to pooh-pooh protective gear (except for the veil—always necessary). Gloves make it difficult to work the bees without squishing them; bee suits are hot, bulky, and, most beekeepers think, unnecessary: the bees aren’t going to sting much…

Wow, it’s been a summer of ups and downs for these bees and me! So the hive that swarmed successfully raised another queen on their own. That wait was a little nervewracking. It took a little over a month from…

The ladies were mean last night. My husband was helping me move the heaviest boxes around on the hives (Note: see previous post. I’ll be moving to all medium boxes next year so I can handle them!). He got one sting…