We did stuff in the garden and the yard yesterday and today. The veggie beds are still putting out cool weather yum and I am gradually planting new in the vacant areas. Planted two varieties of beets, snap peas (I know Randy, probably too late, but what the heck) and fava beans, which also may be a little late. Now to put in some “good Chianti” for when they mature.

The peach tree seems to be bouncing back after the freeze.

The plum trees are blooming out, one a good bit ahead of the other. We also have a damson plum, but it just went in the ground in late Summer, so we don’t expect much this year.

Put some teak oil on the roof and legs of the hives yesterday and got them placed and leveled today. Bring on our girls!

I also put down another seeding of Dutch White Clover in the front and back yards today. Hoping it will take over the yard eventually and require less mowing as well as provide food for the bees.

This pair of videos amaze me.  Well, the second one does.  This first one is just sad.  I wish I could find a video of the entire BBC show they have been taken from.

This one shows European honey bees attacked and killed by Japanese hornets:

This one shows Japanese honeybees DEALING with Japanese hornets:

The bee inspector at bee school last night kept stressing that varroa mites, which have become an epidemic in the US, are a parasite that Indian bees have adapted to.  The mites don’t bother Indian bees, but they have been devastation the US populations of European bees.  (Honey bees are not native to the New World.  They were all introduced along with the crops they pollinate.)  And because of the mingling of bees that has become commonplace in commercial beekeeping, bees are introduced to pests and diseases that they aren’t prepared to combat with greater frequency now than could happen 300 years ago.

He was slamming “natural beekeeping” as they all seem to.  Since living in boxes is not natural to bees, apparently anything else you do to them is acceptable, including putting pesticides in the hives.

I prefer to treat mites with powdered sugar and risk losing a colony of weak bees, promoting the evolutionary development of varroa resistant honeybees, than to use those poisons.  The mites have begun to become resistant to them so, in my not so humble opinion, using miticides is counterproductive.

There are queens that are called “Hygienic” because they produce bees that have anti-mite behaviors.  Why does anyone think it is stupid (and they do act like we are stupid) to want to keep bees that are mite resistant rather than breeding mites that are pesticide resistant on bees that can’t survive with out human interventions?