Making a stand, Honeycomb from heaven, and a busy bee month

What a month !  The Florida Bee Farm needed more room to accommodate all the new arrivals (3 swarms caught) and one split so a new stand was built and squeezed into the apiary.  A large Oleander bush and one papaya tree needed to be relocated and the ground needed leveling in the area of the new stand and it turned out nice.  Not as shaded as the other hives but there is some shade.

New hive stand and 2 of the 3 new hives at the Florida Bee Farm

New brood boxes needed painting and stands needed to be finished to work correctly.  Also bought several migratory covers to experiment with instead of the covers I'm currently using which seem to host more pests and ants than I care to deal with.  But I remember a couple old time beekeepers saying that migratory covers are best in Florida and they're probably right.  I'll probably change all my hives to use migratory covers because I'm tired of finding ants, spiders, frogs and lizards under the cover.

The tomatoes have really been getting most of my attention and have been producing quite a few delicious tomatoes.  Between many nice meals with them and multiple canning sessions, they are just about done for the season.  I learned a lot and picked up a few tips for next year when I plant tomatoes again.  This weekend we probably did our last canning of the season.   It's a bit of work but so very satisfying. 

Final tomato canning session of the year

My latest experiment that was started about a month ago is Hops.  I purchased a few starts from a company in Michigan and they're already 5' tall !!!  They're growing like mad.  It will be an interesting experiment and if successful they may be grown on a larger scale next year even though they're not officially a Florida plant since they may need cold to go dormant.

Honeycomb from heaven The Florida Bee Farm

More honeycomb from heaven at The Florida Bee Farm

The other day I was sitting under a tree and got up to do something.  When I came back, a 8" piece of honeycomb with some bees was sitting next to the chair.  Looking up, I couldn't see through the canopy of leaves to determine if any bees were up there.  Next day I walked by and there were two more pieces of fresh beautiful honeycomb on the ground.  Something's going on up in the tree but not sure what and why the comb keeps falling out.  Fresh made comb is quite amazing.  Very light, perfectly formed and just beautiful.

Finally, for the first time I did a split of one of the hives that was getting too large.  Stacking too many boxes on top of each other is too heavy for me to lift up high and it's also not good for the bees unless you add an upper entrance to the hive.  Because you don't want them coming in with their nectar and pollen and having to climb through a couple brood boxes and honey supers to drop off their load.  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  Another hive I was in this week may be in trouble as the brood wasn't looking good.  Possibly needs a queen. 

There's been an abundance of fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit on our table this month.  Delicious.  And the extra has been sold at the Indian Rocks Co-Op which has been a great group to work with.  A good place to get organic veggies, plants, and all sorts of things. 

Radish's potatoes, mint and Elvis

Nothing says romance like Elvis impersonators at the State Fair

Being the sentimental guy that I am, our romantic valentines day celebration consisted of going to the State Fair and seeing the Elvis impersonators and Budweiser Clydesdale's.  Top that valentine.  The State Fair had many agricultural and 4H club displays.  At one display, the kids were giving away little plastic bags with cotton balls with some radish seeds.  Since my wife likes radish's, she gladly accepted one and gave them to me to plant.  That was several weeks ago.

sprouting radishes

radishes new home

So today while rummaging around the shed looking for something I noticed the little bag with the cotton ball.  Somehow it accumulated a few drops of moisture in the little bag and the radish seeds were starting to grow inside the bag.  So the cotton ball was removed from the bag and all the little seedlings were separated from the cotton and planted.

newly planted potatoes

Another new addition to the Florida Bee Farm and a long shot in my mind are potatoes.  I was recently at a Farmers market and talking to a guy selling organic potatoes.  He happened to have a few potatoes that were starting to sprout that he had under the display because he didn't think any customers would want them.  He gave them to me for purchasing a pound of good organic potatoes.  That worked out perfect because you need organic potatoes for planting because the ones in the supermarkets are sprayed with an anti-sprouting spray to keep the potatoes from sprouting eyes.   Another reason for eating organic.

The potatoes had quite a few eyes already sprouting on them so they were cut into many pieces that all had an eye.  And then placed in large pots with a small amount of dirt on top.  As the plants grow you're supposed to keep mounding dirt on top.  I've heard only a few varieties grow in Florida so this may or may not take as the guy at the Farmers market had no idea what type of potatoes they were.  Since I'm the lucky guy it's worth a try.

relocated sweet mint

While reading some gardening tips today, I noticed people discussing growing mint.  The consensus was that you should put mint in a shady location with plenty of water.  My mint was not doing well in a sunny area so our barely surviving mint plants were transplanted into pots and put into a shady spot after a heavy watering.  Must have mint for Mojitos.

The good Sun

One of the keys to making plants happy is to put them in a place that has plenty of sunshine.  As the planting continues, good sunny spots at the Florida Bee Farm are becoming scarce.   While thinking about this and a few other upcoming projects I decided to remove all the plants in front of the rain barrels and turn that into a growing area.  It's probably one of the most consistent sun spots at the Florida Bee Farm.

The papaya trees and corn plants were moved to add to the green fence around the apiary which has been a recent project.  Several flowering bushes and plumaria flowers were then relocated to the Bee Garden which is another ongoing project.  And after moving all the plants, I was able to start modifying the rain barrel irrigation plumbing which will undergo some major upgrades very soon.   The irrigation system will be beyond amazing. 

New growing table

After clearing the area a good size growing table was built and the top was painted.  It's a nice solid table which will have a hardware cloth surface for drainage.  Mulch and weed cloth was added under the table to keep the weeds at bay.  This table will have it's own irrigation zone and should be prime real estate for growing stuff.

Seeds and cuttings

Networking with other gardeners is a great way to expand your garden in an economical and educational way.  Because spending time with other gardeners can be a good opportunity to learn about plants you haven't worked with in the past. 

I met a really good gardener the other day and was lucky to be able to walk through her garden with her while she showed me many interesting varieties of flowering plants.  Many plants that bees and butterflies thrive around.  I swapped some honey for seeds, plants and cuttings and also learned a lot.  I only wish I took the time to take some pictures of her garden because it was beautiful.  But I had my hands full, taking notes, juggling plants, cuttings and seeds and labeling baggies.  The icing on the cake was she had four chickens that ran around while we discussed gardening.  Interesting because I keep thinking that having chickens might be fun.

One of my favorite plants was her exotic balloon milkweed plant.  It looked like a milkweed plant with a big ole balloon hanging from it.  And the balloon was full of seeds.  I planted about 40 seeds so hopefully there will be balloon milkweed in our Honey Bee Flower Garden before long.

Balloon Milkweed

Just about the whole day was spent potting seeds and cuttings.  The nursery / Florida Green House was completely full so some of the Purple Cherokee tomatoes got to graduate out of the nursery.   Stage II Tomato growing area is also filling up again so it's about time to build some more container plant growing areas.

Greenhouse / Nursery filling up

New arrivals

Happy plants