The happiest sign of spring for me is when bees emerge from the hive. Bees collect honey to nourish them through the winter. Many beekeepers will harvest most of the honey and then feed the bees with concentrated sugar water (three parts sugar to two parts water) at the end of the season to provide nourishment for the cold months. I prefer to harvest less in July and leave them honey and several remaining summer months to replenish their stores. You could ask why not check up on their honey reserves in December and January and if they are slight, then feed them sugar water? Bees huddle around their queen to maintain a high temperature and opening a hive on a cold day is stressful for them. A bigger problem is if food arrives in the middle of winter they may conclude that spring has arrived and encourage the queen to produce brood. I have an Italian queen and this species is well known for beginning brood production early. You could ask what is the harm if they start brood production too early. It requires a lot of energy for bees to keep themselves warm in cold weather and if they have to warm themselves and the queen and the brood in the cells as well, this will be additionally stressful, and bees have too much stress already and too high a winter mortality rate for me to stack the deck further against them. So I abide and hope to see them on a warm day, especially if they have successfully foraged food, and so it was yesterday.
Another gratifying sign is my own greens on the food plate – here a medley of greens (primarily mustard, spinach and kale) sauteed and mixed with scrambled eggs ready for the eating.
And these greens really do taste better than the hoop produce from Georgia farms or the long shipped immaculates from drought ravaged California. My ten hens (two of whom are elders) are now producing 7 eggs a day, another sign that spring is almost here.
And now for the chores – weeding. I have concluded that my training as an accountant has helped me become a better weeder. An oddball theory it seems but here is the reasoning. My upfront standard for a competent accounting operation is that it reconciles its cashbook to bank statement to the penny. I am all for taking a big picture and have produced reports rounded to $1, $100, $1,000 or even $1 million, but even with the biggest organizations my test is still the same – did they reconcile their bank statements to the penny. Having done such reconciliations myself numerous times, and audited and investigated such reconciliations, I guess I have developed a fastidious and somewhat boring mentality. But since I now have the gift (or handicap) it certainly is useful when it comes to thoroughly weeding a vegetable patch. Unless you clear out all the weeds you leave trouble brewing for next time which means more work. Once the weeds are out it is simple maintenance to quickly scarify the soil every few days and bring to the surface the small white roots of infant weeds and thus forestall their attack. But if you leave a few behind and just concentrate on the big uns, why then it becomes an unremitting slog.
Other work is not a chore such as digging the trench for the potatoes – I planted out four varieties.
And planting out cool season vegetable seeds is a satisfying investment in future months. And to keep track of what I am doing I label each row with the variety and date of sowing.
I tend to hold onto items I have replaced thinking I will find a new use. I had damaged venetian blinds sitting in the corner of the basement for a year before I could figure out a new use which was to cut the slats into small pieces and use them as labels for my vegetable rows. Since the slats are designed for sun exposure I am sure they will not deteriorate but they are flimsy and so I locate them at the edge of the beds where they are better protected.
My next project is to make compost tea which is need to dynamize (I am thinking along the lines of bio dynamics) some of the recently built raised beds. I have ordered an air pump and piping and “stones” and when I am successful will make a future post.