Got some work done at the Park Heights Community Health Alliance today. Here are some photos from our work.
Gardening at Park Heights
In Bloom🌺🌸
It’s almost June and the hard work of the spring is paying off. Here are some shots of my pollinator-friendly plants.
I thought I would start sharing the progress of the garden as well as the bees.
The hive continues to live even though it’s small. The recent pollen should help them to grow over the next few weeks. I will keep posting…
Bee Well,
Michelle
Preparing for New Bees
On Sunday, we got some work done. We rehabilitated and collected honey frames from hives to start again for the spring.
Above are photos of me scraping the excess propolis and honey comb. I just got 10 packages yesterday and this morning, Warren and woke up at 5 am to do the install of around 7 of the hives.
I will post more photos and my progress in the next few days.
If you want to see me in action, I will be hosting an event at Real Food Farms on Friday, May 18th at 4 pm.
Michelle
Spring at the garden
It’s mid April and spring has finally arrived. I came out this morning to check in at the garden in Park Heights to find that one of my fellow beekeepers new hives are doing well.
The recent change in weather and blooms are out!
More updates to come!
Michelle
Finally, fall in Baltimore…
Beginnings of greenhouse 2
New seedlings for greenhouse
The “real” fall has finally arrived in early November in Baltimore. Above are some photos of the Woodland garden from this week and I was lucky enough to have some help from Sophia on Monday.
This week it has been colder than its been all year and damp. I am always commenting (rather complain about) the dampness of Maryland despite growing up in the constant humidity of Miami, when it rains here and it under 50 degrees it’s really cold to me.. So this week when the temperatures hit 42, I was freezing.
The good news was that we can retire the summer crops but, the bad news was that it meant saying goodbye to some of these plants (the last gasp of my various tomatoes). Over the last few weeks, we moved seedling into the hoop houses at Woodland and we have been preparing the moisture levels in the houses for new plant life. This my first year using hoop houses and I am excited about this project. I will share more photos of the winter oasis.
As for the bees… Not much movement for the last few days because of the dreary weather. Below are two days of photos. I fed the hives and when I thought all was calm, the guard bees on the more active hive let me know they were still around. The other hive was more docile.
Otherwise, I have been working on my indoor business activities and preparations for the winter. Hopefully, the weather does not take a turn for winter soon and the Friday freeze will be brief.
I will keep you updated!
Michelle
Fall Feeding and new acquistions
Hive A is getting stronger
Hive B is also doing well
Frame Feeder 10/19
Checking out the hive before helping me feed
A quick photo after the work is done.
So this week, I made another visit to hives at the Woodland Garden to feed the bees in preparation for the winter. Until the weather turns, I will be going every 7-10 days to feed them. This time, I was joined by a fellow Urban Gardner Floyd who recently completed the beekeeping class in Baltimore County but, does not have any hives of his own. He was eager to see the bees up close and he was helpful in the quick feeding process. Since, I have extra suits in my car and I am helping others so, I thought it was fun to play teacher a bit.
Good news! the possibly queenless hive that I mentioned in a previous post has recovered and has crowned a queen. Thus, they seem to be building up the second box. Moreover, these bees are no longer directionless which is a good thing.
I still need to decide whether or not to combine the hives. So, I fed both hives some 2:1 feed with essential oils. I know that I going to have to a treatment in the next week so, I will post that information as well.
Below is a hive I recently acquired at the main park heights site so, I started to feed these guys on Wednesday.
While inspecting the hive, I noticed that the hive has wax moths so, I don’t know how long it’s going last. The wax moth can be highly destructive and it may be affecting the brood box.
But, I got a great deal on the equipment and the hive. I will be online looking at ways to save these bees and helping them through the winter. I will also do some posting on the cleaning and preparation of the hive equipment for next year. There is some debate on whether or not to use old equipment but, these hives were neglected and recently inspected by the state so I think the equipment is worth the time and effort.
There will be posting on the cleaning and preparation of the hive equipment for next year as related to the new acquisitions. There is some debate on whether or not to use old equipment but, these hives were neglected and recently inspected by the state so I think the equipment is worth the time and effort.
Moreover, I will do a deeper dive and share more photos in the next few weeks. As for this post, I thought I would share what I have now to keep the blog up to date on the October actions and to share some new photos.
Michelle
