Bragging Rights

Ok, I am trying not to be too smug here.....but here is the first tomato at duck herder central ripening on the vine. 

 Yup. In the glass house we have an apollo and a cherry tomato growing in large pots, sitting in a tray of water so they don't dry out. Being coddled and loved and fertilized and covered and double covered and well, here we are.

On the other side of the glass house we have tomatos slowly replacing auto pots of winter salad greens. The Auto pot system is great - only kind of hydroponics because you can grow the plants in soil rather than a non soil medium.

Meanwhile, the main tomato, eggplant and capsicum seedlings are hardening up outside.

Today is very windy - so they are being extra hardened up!

Just one more shot - of my lovely capsicum seedlings - these are "cherry time" - a small red cap. Everything looks very healthy. Growing veggies from seed is very rewarding. It also teaches you a LOT about soil and plant nutrition and soil biology and balance and health. It is all love.

Bee Keeping for Complete Idiots

OK, so, today was/is lovely. Was because I have mucked around all morning, and most of the afternoon, and now I MUST chain myself to the 'puter and do some work....because I have a report due for a client this week, and because I won't get paid if I don't deliver!

SO naturally it is time to blog......

I thought more about the crazy comb, and decided on two things......


1) to minimise the chance of crazy comb happening in these new boxes I just added to both hives
2) to see if it is too late to salvage that box of crazy comb before it gets full of honey
 
OK, so, strategy 1: I did a thing called pyramiding...which involves pulling out one or two nicely built combs from the box below the one you are adding, and placing these in the centre of the new box which gives the girls something to work from when they draw out the rest of the frames......

Then, on the box below, move the frames all inwards to fill the space, and add empty frames to the outside to fill the gap.  Clear as mud.

Queen Malina on the Front Deck has plenty of lovely straight frames...... so I took an extra one for Queen Aprilia of the Crazy Comb.

Now both lots of bees have new boxes with at least 1 very straight well built comb so that they will hopefully build out all the remaining frames in the same way.


Which leaves the crazy comb box......the girls have not only half filled this box with random cross frame combs.... they are filling these up with honey as we speak. So, this box is already half full of un capped honey......so I am leaving it on.......and will deal with it later......Because if I trash it now, they won't have anywhere to store the honey, because there is no spare comb until they build it..... see my problem?

Sheesh. Some of you may realise that I do not seem to use conventional beekeeping methods. And you would be correct. I let the bees make their own comb - what ever size they like. I do not force them to use commercial, chemical filled foundation.......I do not mind if they need to spend extra energy and time building their own combs because I think they like it. I have a secret theory that this time of year especially, bees like to build comb....and if they don't have room to do this, then they are perhaps more likely to swarm. I do not know this for a fact. And, I do not particularly need or want to prevent the girls from swarming - I don't mind a bit. And it is just a theory.

Anyway, I model my bee herding methods on these folks here:
http://www.backwardsbeekeepers.com/
Yes, I am a backwards beekeeper! Who are we?

We're a group of organic, treatment-free beekeepers in Los Angeles, with branches now forming in other cities.

We're "Backwards" because we rely on observation and natural practices to keep our bees thriving rather than pesticides, chemicals, or treatments of any kind.

There is a really cool book you can buy which I think it s very handy resource. It is called Bee Keeping for Complete Idiots.

For any Oncian Urban Homesteaders - I have a spare copy if you would like to borrow it.

Anyway, this is my third year of bee herding....(or is it my fourth?) . So I am still a beginner - although I guess you always are.......and I love it.

Bee Crazy

OK so it wasn't quite the weather for it, but I snuck a look in both the bee hives today and popped another box on each. Both colonies have come through winter very strongly. What different operations those girls have going. Queen Malina on the Front Deck has used up all the honey I left her - I am glad I left that extra box of honey on for winter. It is all cleaned out and hopefully ready for a bit of a spring nectar flow. There are a few gum trees coming into flower - some iron barks and a couple of boxes....so fingers crossed we will get some more of the sweet stuff soon. her hive is mostly well organized with neat combs that follow the frames making having a look see and harvesting a breeze.

So now to Queen Aprilia - what a MESS. I left them some stickies from Queen Malina's hive in autumn....which they have cleaned up....and they are way ahead starting to build lots of lovely new comb already this season .....but they are building it across the frames - CRAZY comb! The bees don't give a shit, but it does make it more exciting to harvest as it is impossible to pull out combs individually without making a huge mess..... hee hee. I like their anarchic style!

 Here is Queen Aprilia's hive with the lid off - the girls are building in the lid cavity....AGAIN.

And here is the top box with the hive mat taken off - you can see how the combs are being build across the frames..... I need to think about how I deal with this - whether I take this box away, clean it out and start again......or leave them to make a big heaving mess......

Happy swarm season!

Nashi Rompy Pompy

 We grow two types of Nashi- Hosui and Kosui. They are BEAUTIFUL. For the last 2 years, Hosui has been a bit sickly, and last year, I bought a replacement Hosui which was lucky because old Hosui finally succumbed.

 Anyway, new Hosui wintered well and has 7 flowers, which is good because Kosui needs Hosui for pollination, and visa vesra.



So I was a little worried when Hosui flowered a whole 5 days before Kosui. This is normal. But when we are only talking about 7 flowers....well, the odds of good pollination are a little longer.

Here is Kosui. She is flowering beautifully. The bees are working her very enthusiastically, but I have yet to see a bee on poor little Kosui.

Meanwhile Kosui's 7 little flowers become older and more bedraggled and as far as I can see, bee less.

Fingers crossed there was a little bit of Hosui / Kosui rompy pompy because I would be sad and sad and sad if there was a year without nashi.

Duck on the Waydeeow

OK, so moving on from the whole Chicken Massacre Debacle, things took a more upbeat turn today. I got to play on the waydeeow. You can listen to our little Bush Telegraph biddy bit here. 

(ok, so that link isnt working very well - it is stopping before the end...so you could try the 11:40 interview from today's Bush Tellie)

AND, if you are interested, you can watch the roll out of City to Soil in Armidale HERE!

All gone

OK, So I have been away all week for work. Mr Duck gets 10/10 for looking after the tomato seedlings and 1/10 for looking after the chooks.

My poor darlings. Their cage door wasn't locked one night and a fox got them all. Except the big fella. Who is is deep shock.......propped up on pillows being fed through a syringe.....

Poor Winky
Poor Camila
Poor Victoria
Poor Paris
Poor Dipsy

and poor Big Fella.


(heehee, I suspect that big fat rotund faverolle was too heavy for the fox! Score one for the fat arsed big bottomed girls!

Mt Mountains, My ONC

So like, this is for Marla - Marla, this is the Jerrabomberra  Wetlands. (Marla gets such an Oklahomian kick out of the word "Jerrabomberra") What is that white stuff? Well, that be FROST. So it was kinda like -2 the morning my big sister and I decided to take our Dad hot air ballooning!

And here are my mountains. That's Mount Painter in the fore ground, Mt Stromlo in the mid ground, and MY MOUNTAINS in the back ground.  

And this is us, in the balloon! It was joyous. Marvelous.