Author: Richard

remediation

This is not about environmental remediation, just correcting a few deficiencies in my nu trac environment. Bees When I split the hive a few weeks ago by taking bees and frames from hive 1 and creating a new hive 2, I noticed that hive 1 had no brood and apparently no queen.  In addition to the new queen I purchased for hive 2, I ordered a second queen for hive 1.  The second queen and several attendants arrived in a queen's cage last Friday from an Alabama beekeeper. After again confirming Read more [...]

observation and analysis

I used to think observation was the key talent.  On trips through the Kruger game reserve in South Africa my siblings and I competed to spot the lion, cheetah, leopard or unusual game first.  On a river boat trip through north Australia we competed to be the first in the launch to spot the saltwater crocs ("salties") lazing on the banks.  And for such contests a sharp eye was all that was needed. But in my interactions with nature, observing the discordant object is only the first step.  Understanding Read more [...]

wildflower seeding

Last fall I collected a large quantity of wildflower seed and stored it in a cloth shopping bag.  Now that I have planted out my tomatoes and with rain in the offing, I decided to sow the seed - cosmos, sunflower, marigold and zinnia.  I was gifted two old cultivators - they are 5 feet wide and connect to the three point hitch at the back of the tractor.  The tines are spring tensioned.  I have a 60hp tractor which typically would pull a larger cultivator and so I had to make some adjustments Read more [...]

bees – a swarm trap

Bees swarm to reproduce the colony and a common cause is population density or, according to an Australian beekeeper, dissatisfaction with current living conditions, which can be the same thing.  A primary swarm is when the existing queen leaves with up to 60% of the population and a secondary swarm is when a virgin queen leaves with a large percentage of the bees.  I reckon in my first year of beekeeping my bees swarmed 4 or 5 times. So one way to prevent swarms is to give them more hive space Read more [...]

tomato planting time

I made a false start about a month ago, when the daily temperatures were in the 80's, and put out a dozen small tomato plants, most of which succumbed to an unexpected frost.  So I waited a while and in the past week have begun setting out the plants.  I try to rotate to avoid soil borne disease, though the area I have just planted was used for tomatoes for the first time last year.  It is on the top of a small rise along the edge where the ground slopes down, running South to North so it has Read more [...]

splitting the bee hive

I acquired my bees in spring 2010 and am now in my third year with the one hive.  I decided it was time for two hives and there are several ways to go about this.  Rather than buy a "package" or "nuc" I wanted to propagate my existing bees.  After all, they have survived two winters, gave me 4.5 gallons honey last year and appear very healthy and have not needed any medications.  So the genetics are good and, what I should have done, as suggested by a commentator, is used a queen cell in the Read more [...]

rainwater from coop roof

When I built the new coop in October last year I fitted  a gutter which directs rainwater to an adjacent 250 gallon storage tank.  My thought was to (a) collect all rainwater landing on impervious surfaces, and (b) use the water to irrigate a chicken food growing area.  To grow food for the chicken I would have to cordon off a growing area and maintain it with vegetables and irrigation, which involves extra work, so instead I now give them excess vegetables from the vegetable garden.  And the Read more [...]

bees – “The Lost World of the Kalahari”

I have been spending time with my bees - recently did my first split (split the one hive into two separate hives) and will soon do the first honey harvest of 2012.  So, with bees on my mind, I want to include some excerpts from an engrossing book written in 1958 in South Africa by Laurens Van Der Post titled "The Lost World of the Kalahari" about the Bushmen. The Bushmen loved honey and used a special herbal smoke to drug the bees before he dared reach for the honey because "the wild bees of Read more [...]

2nd chicken coop door installed

Last week I designed, constructed and installed my first coop door opener - it has operated flawlessly the past week automatically opening the door at about 8am and then late afternoon I reverse the current and close it when I feed the chickens and settle them for the night. An ongoing issue has been the aggressiveness of the Buff Orpington rooster  to his Buff Orpington sister.  The coop has a partition door and, prior to the advent of the door opener, I would house Lady Macbeth (such a fierce Read more [...]

water conservation – “Heart of Dryness”

I just read Heart of Dryness by James Workman about the plight of the Bushmen in the Kalahari desert when the Botswana government cut off their water supplies and how they adapted and how we can learn from them. I was interested in the book because I am originally from South Africa which abuts Botswana, and also here in Georgia we are engaged in legal water wars with neighboring states.  Workman interlaces the story of the Bushmen with a narrative on the use and abuse of water worldwide and his Read more [...]