A few more gardening lessons learned the hard way

The mini greenhouses we made seemed to be working so well and produced many healthy looking little cucumber plants.  The cukes were beautiful and I was just getting ready to permanently remove the tops from the mini greenhouses.  But I waited a day too late.  They ended up getting baked and wilting which was a big disappointment.  A few may survive but this was another one of those lessons the hard way.   But something was learned at least.

The other big disappointment was these low pressure soaker hoses that I spent so much time installing.  Once mulch goes on top of them, they stop working and clog up with the dust from the mulch.  A complete waste of time and money.  Fortunately these (Mr. Drip / Mr. Soaker Hose) were bought from Amazon and I'll be able to get a refund.  It will just be a real pain to pull them out of the dirt and put them in a box to return. 

It's virtually impossible to find others using them.  One person said hers stopped working which made me suspicious and had me monitoring the hoses closely until I determined they were complete junk.  Now it's back to the drawing board to come up with a hands free irrigation system to keep our plants watered.

I love it when a plan comes together

Despite the fact that my table saw wasn't working, the bee vacuum came together very quickly this morning.  Since I was rushing, it was a little rough around the edges but once the bees are relocated the bee vacuum will get sanded down and finished.  I didn't have caulk so I used duct tape which sealed the areas just fine.  Total construction time was 3 hours which wasn't bad.  Everything just came together with no problems at all.  Everything fit first time and all my zany ideas actually worked.

But the first thing I did this morning was spray the swarm down with sugar water to buy me some time and keep them from swarming again. 

Time to gather the bees.  The saw horses that were used in the construction were moved by the tree to make a table to put the bee vacuum on.  I then connected the hoses and ran an extension cord out.  After putting on the bee suit, it took about 45 minutes of gently pulling the bees into the vacuum hose.  Despite being a 2.5" hose, the bees clogged up the hose a couple times and I had to wiggle the hose and hold it up to persuade them to stay in the hive.  The pressure was perfect.  Not too much but just the right amount.  That was pure luck.

Bee Vacuum ready to work

After 45 minutes, my neck was getting a little sore.  Halfway through the process I cleared the entrance to the swarm trap and plugged that up to take with us.  At this point I didn't have a clue what was inside the swarm trap.  As the weather's starting to heat up around here, I was drenched in sweat after gathering the swarm.  The vacuum motor was then disconnected and removed from the bee vacuum to allow ventilation into the deep box now full of bees and frames.  There were a few stragglers but most were in the box.

Deploying the new hive at the bee farm was quite simple.  I lit the smoker and then the first thing I did was position the landing pad/base/bottom board on the platform.  Then the ratchet straps were removed and after smoking the vacuum the deep was placed on the bottom board.  Then the top was removed and the inner cover and outer cover were installed.  It only took a few minutes.  By this time there were a lot of buzzing and not the happiest bees in the world zipping around.  A bunch were clumped on the vacuum top and bottom so those parts were shaken off to add even more flying bees to the mayhem.   Oh and the Nuc was opened up and was empty !!!  It's a good thing they were captured with the bee vac because they might have flown off in a swarm. 

Tomorrow it's time to inspect the other hives and I suspect that they may be reaching capacity.  Some medium frames are coming in the mail today.  I couldn't resist having a little peek into those hives and wasn't expecting how packed full of bees they were.  After seeing numerous bees on the inner cover and crowded around the inner cover hole I decided to wait until tomorrow to continue so I wouldn't disrupt the hives too much.  Adding the medium supers tomorrow probably should happen so they don't run out of room and possibly swarm.

And then there were four

As the new arrivals are numerous and not in the best mood I decided to leave and let them all calm down.  Everything worked out even better than I expected.  PLUS there were no dead bees in the entire vacuuming operation which is a plus. 

Newest Hive (far right) painted by mom

Be careful what you wish for

It was a particularly rough day getting a couple yards of topsoil to cover the new flower garden that's by the bee hives.  They warned me that two yards of soil might be too taxing for my truck but since it's a GMC 2500 HD diesel, it didn't seem like much of an issue.   It's just a good thing I didn't have far to go because that truck was loaded to the max.  Pulling a heavy fifth wheel was nothing compared to the weight of the top soil.  And it was a comedy of errors on my part at the soil place.  After he dumped the first load of dirt from the top loader I noticed the tailgate was still down !!!  Lucky I brought a shovel.  The tailgate gave me a lot of trouble though and it took awhile before I could get the second load.  And then I noticed the sign that said no credit cards.  Geez.....  at least there was a bank within walking distance.

Unloading the soil was a big chore and took a long time.  Then the truck needed to be cleaned.  Needless to say when I got home later in the afternoon I was quite tired.  I sat down in the living room to relax and out of the corner of my eye noticed that the swarm trap that was just re-deployed was now covered in another massive swarm of honey bees.  Less than 24 hours and I caught another even bigger swarm.  Third one in 2 weeks.   And like the last one they bearded up on the outside of the swarm trap.  So much for relaxing tonight ...

ANOTHER new swarm only hours after deploying trap

This time I'll act quickly to prevent the beard from flying off like last time.  I've been designing a very cool bee vacuum for a few weeks now.  The idea is still conceptual and a mixture of all the ideas that are floating around on youtube and the internet.  If it works, it will be the best bee vacuum out there.  Because my idea covers all bases.  It will allow gently pulling the bees into a hive that's ready to deploy with frames and all.  The bee vacuum will be a 3 piece unit.  Top has a vacuum built in, middle is the actual deep with frames (hive), and the bottom is a smooth landing pad where the hose connects to pull the bees in.  And the best part is once you're done vacuuming them in, the vacuum disconnects on the top leaving a nice big ventilation screen to keep the girls cool.  That's really important.  The plans are in my mind and I'm confident of the feasibility.    Plus I have extra wood and most of what I need to fabricate it in the morning.  Should be interesting.

If at first you don't succeed ...

Looks like the tweaks to the home swarm trap work !  Next morning I was pleasantly surprised to see all the interested visitors.  Hopefully this won't be another one night stand.

Welcoming our first Honey Bee Swarm

It started off with me looking out the window to see if there were any bees on our swarm trap.  After a few minutes I saw a bee buzzing around and go into the hive.  Then I saw a few more.  When I called the wife over to check it out, all the bees disappeared and after a few minutes she looked at me and said "Oh right ... lots of bees ha ha ha".

About 15 minutes later I went outside and the activity level started picking up and more and more honey bees were going into our swarm trap.  Before long there were 30-40 bees buzzing around the converted Nuc (swarm trap) and then it got to be in the hundreds.  Quite exciting.  I just couldn't believe it and was over the top overjoyed to be watching this.  Fortunately I took some video of our new friends buzzing around.

The next step is to give them a little space and let them get comfortable in their new digs.  Then I'll transfer the frames to another hive I have waiting.  I'll put them in the new deep box that my mom painted. 

What a good day it is !

Rain barrels working well with low pressure soaker hoses

The rain barrels are filled and the plants are thirsty.  So the next step is to get the water to the raised beds and come up with an efficient irrigation system.  One local gardener I bumped into at Home Depot was showing me pictures of his garden and recommended using soaker hoses instead of drip irrigation.  He told me that it's more of a long term solution that works regardless of how you space your plants.  He didn't have a rain barrel system and used city water so soaker hoses hooked up to a pressurized system are much different than low pressure soaker hoses and a rain barrel system.

One option was to hook a pump up to the rain barrels and make my own pressurized system but a simple system was more what I wanted to build.  After extensive browsing the internet, there was one video about a soaker hose system hooked up to rain barrels.  The guy seemed pretty happy with the system but it bothered me that there wasn't more youtube videos or websites talking about the rain barrel soaker hoses from Mr. Drip / Mr. Soakerhose.  And there wasn't much else out there that worked on low pressure and rain barrels.  So I wasn't sure what to expect when the two 50' hoses and fittings arrived in our mail.

The first thing was 3/4" PVC pipe from the rainbarrels were ran underground to the garden area (about 25-30' away).  Then a 50' section was installed in each raised bed.  One bed was installed and tested it and it really worked well.  After doing the second section, I was surprised to find out that both of them hooked together worked just as efficient as running one. Plenty of pressure and moisture delivered to the plants. This system is just right for my setup as you cannot attach a standard soaker hose from a hardware store to a low pressure rainbarrel system.  And you cannot use the rain barrel soaker hoses with pressurized city water or it will blow them out.  Here's a video of the system in action.  (sorry about the smudge on the lens)

In the future the plans are for adding 2 more raised beds and a dual outlet irrigation timer if I can find one.  Otherwise it will be 2 separate timers.  Timers I also discovered are picky about water pressure and this system will need a low pressure timer.

I have been so busy there wasn't any time devoted to blogging about the plants I put in this week.  It's a work in process and the cold weather earlier in the week messed me up.   Tomatoes, kale, chard, onions, califlower, peppers, mustard greens, and a few others were planted.  It's all starting to come together.

New plants and now a freeze warning

I didn't even have time to get a picture of our new plants in the raised beds.  A few days ago we bought a lot of veggie plants and they looked really nice in their new garden home.  I just kept forgetting to bring my camera.

It's been several years (2011) since we had a freeze around here so I'm going to have to take the blame for this cold weather.  Planting the new veggies must have jinxed it.   It's pretty chilly in the 40's during the day and forecast to get down to 33 degrees tonight !  Also a good excuse to put on a nice pot of delicious vegetarian chili.

Freeze warning tonight - Cover your plants and lions

So today was spent covering all the plants or at least as many as I could.  I had a roll of tyvek leftover from a building job so I made an enclosure over the raised beds and covered it with (noisy) tyvek in the gusty winds.  Quite the challenge made easier when the wife showed up.  The cold weather will be here for 2 days and will jump back into the 70's.  Hopefully it's the only freeze this year.  At least we don't live in cold weather parts of the country.  We went to COSTCO yesterday and 60% of the cars in the lot were from out of state.  Not that I blame them.

Cozy plants all tucked in for the night.

Even the bees were not their normal active selves.  They came in early today anticipating the chill I guess.  In case of bad weather, I made boards that I could slide into the hives to close up the bottom and keep the girls warmer.  They'll appreciate it tonight. 

Best looking bee hives in town

My mother is a talented artist so I asked her if she would like to decorate one of my hives.  I left it up to her how she wanted to do it and of course it turned out better than I ever could have anticipated.  She even offered to do a couple more which I will gladly accept.  The girls will love 'em !!!

More Swarm Traps

The original swarm traps I tried to make from experimental hive boxes were not usable.  The frames wouldn't go in straight and just wasn't correct as far as allowing enough bee space for the bees to move around.  So they were both cut up and reused as 5 frame swarm traps kind of like a nuc.   The construction was a little ugly but the boxes were solid (heavy) and should work perfect as swarm traps.  After painting the exterior and then washing the boxes I loaded them up with queen pheromone and lemongrass essential oil scent.

That brings our trap count to 6 if you count the 2 nucs deployed a few weeks ago.  The one in front of our house always seems to have one or two bees going in and out of it checking it out.  It seems quite likely it will attract a swarm.

I wiped the outside of the boxes with beeswax.  Never heard of that before but it's to counteract the new paint smell and will even repel water somewhat.  Worth a try.

I dropped off 3 of the swarm traps today in various places around the city and it feels like fishing where you're holding the pole patiently waiting. 

Horse Puckey

I couldn't pass up a good opportunity to get a truckload of free horse manure.  Better yet, they even load it for you with their tractor.  What a deal.  And to top it off, the manure was already partially composted with almost no smell.  I had my truck bed loaded to add to the bee farm's compost piles to build some excellent soil.

They had 30 horses, cows and baby calves.  It was quite convenient as they were only about 10 miles away from here.  I didn't use the trailer this time which worked out well as there was some tight areas to maneuver around.  I had a friend with me who helped unload the truck when we got back to the bee farm. 

Raised beds and bringing the honey bee nucs home

Busy busy day yesterday moving the mulch pile and building 2 of 5'x10' raised beds for gardening.  Also moved those heavy earth box type plant containers out 2 feet so I could get between the fence and plants to prune, etc.  After building the raised beds they were lined with a 1" of newspaper hosed down.  Then a layer of leaves and finally a 1/2" layer of mulch.  Mulch was also added on the pathways around the raised beds.

Today was just as busy.  We drove a few hours north to a farm to get some premium compost and get a tour of their organic eco farm.  Quite interesting as they grow a lot of plant varieties that most people say is impossible for their climate.  We learned a lot and bought a few plants to take home as well as had the pickup truck bed completely loaded with compost as well as a small trailer we were pulling.

Next stop to visit a beekeeper about a half hour up the road to pick up a couple nucs which is like a small scale bee hive loaded with brood, a queen and a lot of bees.  In no time the brood will hatch and you'll have a full scale hive soon.  As the wife wanted no part of having the bees inside the truck, I dug out some space in the back of my truck bed to hold the nucs.  The nucs were pretty ragged with some holes we found out so it's a good thing they weren't in the truck with us.  Especially with the massive traffic jam we encountered on the way home.  At one point while the beekeeper was getting the nucs ready for travel, the bees seemed to get quite riled up.  Unfortunately I was standing there in a pair of shorts and tee shirt a tad uncomfortable with all the "agitated" bees new interest in me.  I finally dove into the truck to take cover. 

Once we got to the bee farm we unloaded the nucs and set them on top of the hives so the bees could orient themselves to the land.  Tomorrow morning the bees and frames will be transferred from the nucs into their new homes.  The beekeeper gave us a couple feeder jars filled with green margarita/lime mix which coincidentally is what we're going to have during tomorrow's Superbowl party.  So nice to already include the bees in our festivities.

Rain barrel gutters and bees on the hives

After a lot of trying to figure out how to route the gutters on the shed to feed the rain barrels, I finally came up with a workable plan.  There's still a million details to work out but the gutters are up and ready to feed the four barrels.  First step though will be to link them all together.

In other news,  the new hives are set up and already receiving visitors.

Ant proof Platform and painted hives

The hives are now all painted and ready for occupancy.  I had to move the one that the bees were attracted to yesterday so I could paint it.  And the bees were looking for it several times today, circling that area and checking out the other hives sitting out.  They were also seen flying around the swarm lure/trap.

Lowes sells a rubber coupler 1 1/4 - 1/12 to 2" which worked nicely as a grease cup for the 3/4" galvanized pipe.  Plastic pipe insulation was used as a gasket to make up for the difference between 3/4 and 1 1/4".  The radiator clamp it came with cinched it up nicely so grease will soon be added to the outside of the pipe and into the cup to repel the ants.  The only thing still needed is a little umbrella type barrier positioned a few inches over the grease trap to keep debris and water out.  That will be fabricated from thin gauge aluminum I have in the garage.

 The two things about the platform I didn't expect.  The pipes move in the concrete which makes them less secure.  I found that out screwing in the tee's while tightening them onto the pipes that are embedded in concrete.  Not a real big deal. 

The platform is 14' long which may be a little bit too long.  I can always cut it back.  The 3/4" galvanized pipe seemed plenty strong when I started this project but with everything loaded up on the platform there is a very small amount of play.  1" or slightly larger would have been better but this will probably work fine.

Another lesson learned that I thought I learned long ago was to never buy cheap paint.  I bought a couple more colors for the hives and around the farm but they were a cheaper paint that the top quality paint I've been using.  Big difference.  Two coats were needed for everything where the other paint would do it perfect in one coat.  Do you really save money?  I don't think so.

Paint looks nice though.  Not traditional beekeeping white hives but we like a bit of color in our lives.  And the bees being mostly gals probably will appreciate the pastels.

Painted hives resting on their new ant proof platform

Location, location, location

So much consideration has gone into picking the perfect spot for the bees.  I need to get it right the first time because the ant proof stand will be cemented into the ground and not easily moved.  The spot has 85% sun and most important, the morning sun will greet the hive.  In the afternoon there will be a little shade which I'm sure the bees will appreciate on hot Florida days.

The stand will roughly be located over the concrete blocks in the above picture.  The concrete blocks won't be part of the stand and are only there to level and measure the area.  The hives will face the older fence in the picture.  Just over that fence is roughly 3 acres of field and a great landmark for the bees to find their way home.  It really looks nice on the other side of the fence.  The bees will love it !

View from over the fence

That newer fence was constructed this week and serves several purposes.  Besides being a nice privacy fence for the bees it also diverts them from the condos behind our property.  There are no condos directly behind us but I wanted to be a good neighbor and do what I can to keep the bees away from that area.  The other purpose of the new fence is it's now where I store much of my spare wood and miscellaneous junk.  Keeps the mini farm looking neat.

Swarm traps

The first two deep hive bodies I built had a few imperfections that rendered them unusable to use in a hive.  But many lessons were learned.

However they will work for use as a certain type of swarm trap that has been churning in my mind recently.   Our house has seen more than it's share of swarms due to the "jungle look" style of landscaping I've employed.  Bees seem to love it here.  In July of 2007 one swarm arrived just hours before 200 people were to show up at our home after our son's funeral service.

Back then I knew nothing about swarms or bees other than we knew that we could not allow a large swarm of bees only 2 feet away from the walkway to our front door.  So our other son, my wife and I spent several hours before the funeral in a mad frenzy to disperse the swarm using a garden hose and I'm embarrassed to admit... wasp spray.  It took awhile but we did manage to clear the way for the many guests who were to arrive in a few hours.  I sometimes think that maybe it was our son's way of keeping us busy before the funeral to take our minds away from the grief.

Since then, several other swarms have shown up and several hives were even formed in the jungle so this is prime honeybee catching real estate.   The swarm traps have 1" openings on the side and the box is basically a deep brood box with a floor and top on hinges.  Also a 4" piece of 3/4" lumber with a 2 1/2 " hole above the trap is for hanging on a tree branch.

I gathered some old comb from old hives on the property as well as a couple pieces of discarded hive that I was given at the Tampa Bay Beekeepers apiary on Saturday.  Putting pieces of comb inside the hive as well as a cotton ball with lemon grass essence and a little beeswax will attract scout bees that are sent out before a swarm forms.  Might even add a little queen pheromone to the mix as well.

The only thing still needed are some frames and foundation to go into the traps.  Still trying to decide which frames to use.

House is finally complete

When we purchased this property there was a small house in pretty sad shape.  Our goal was to completely redo it and transform it into a nice home that we could rent.  As in all projects this one turned out to be much more work and expense than we expected.  So most of my energy has been poured into this project leaving little time to develop the mini farm I envisioned. 

Just around Christmas we were approached by a neighbor who knew someone needing a place to rent.  And they wanted to be in by January 1st so we had to really work to finish up the million little projects that needed to be done.  New Years eve we finished up and now have a signed lease on the house.  Which means we can get back to developing our mini bee farm.

The bee farm has a solar powered shed that sits in the middle of the lot in an area that gets lots of sun.  The solar system consists of four 100 watt panels, a 5000/10000 inverter, MPPT controller and several AGM batteries that were fried last week when I tried running a plasma cutter on the solar system.  Earlier this week I noticed the solar wasn't working and found a puddle of something under one of the batteries.  Bad news for sure.  There were several factors that caused their demise so this turned into one of those learning experiences.

The good news is I found the most amazing deal on a top of the line bank of 4  almost brand new AGM batteries.  The catch was we had to drive to Orlando to pick them up but the price and quality was well worth the drive.  Plus we were able to try a new (excellent) vegetarian restaurant in Orlando called the Dandelion cafe.  The new battery bank boosts the battery power to 460 ah from our old batteries @ 220 ah.  What this means is we will have plenty of power to spare and can power almost anything (except a plasma cutter) we need.

Tomorrow I'll install the new batteries and will finally be able to focus all my time into building bee hives and working on gardening.