Culling garden insects aka plant munchers

Aynaria 10 Comments
Stanley Lawn & Garden Sprayer

A few days ago, Curls of Curls & Q, wrote about landscaping their back yard.  Check it out if you have the time the before and after pictures are amazing.

Anyway, Curl’s post made me realize that I hadn’t made any of my natural  insect repelling sprays! I’ve been so caught up with my honeybees that I haven’t thought about spraying my garden.

With the garden showing signs of our labor, it’s high time I get out there and protect all of our efforts, right?

Since I needed to update my garden sprayer, I logged onto Amazon and purchased the metal Stanley Lawn & Garden Sprayer. Which makes a nice upgrade from the plastic sprayer that I was using. If parts wear out I won’t have to purchase a brand-new sprayer, I just need to replace the part.

Neem oil, is my favorite oil that I used to keep the insects at bay. I spray plants once every four days, using a total of six applications. Insects that ingest the plants sprayed with neem become sterile and prevents egg production. I even spray this brew around mosquito friendly areas.

What’s even better the beneficial insects, like butterflies, honeybees and spiders aren’t usually affected. It’s recommended to spray your garden with neem oil in the early morning or evening, so you don’t douse the beneficial insects.

Later this week, I’ll post more about the awesomeness of neem oil and I’ll make sure I include a simple recipe.

Update:

Neem recipe to eliminate garden pests has been posted.

Resources:

  1. Mosquito Control by neem
  2. Use of neem oil as a mosquito repellent in tribal villages of Mandla district/ Madhya Pradesh

They say death comes in threes…

Aynaria 8 Comments

Death comes in threes…

This is a superstition, that I’ve heard throughout my life and while I’ve seen it with others I never experienced  it on a personal level until recently.

Last week, one of the older family friends died. She was 91 years old. Also my father’s cousin passed away, she was in her 60’s, and my aunt (my mother’s sister and the one with the brain tumor) died this past Friday. She was 76 years old.

Out of the three, my aunt is the one I saw the most and it has affected me more than the others. I haven’t shed any tears over her death, that doesn’t mean I don’t miss her. I do, I’m just not the type that cries. I imagine the funeral will be packed. My aunt was involved with a lot of outreach ministries through her church. She stayed active. I’m happy that she’s not suffering anymore and I know I’ll see her again in heaven.

Adventures in Beekeeping: First hive inspection

Aynaria 6 Comments

Earlier this morning, I opened up my Warre hive.

1st Warre hive inspection-honeycomb
First inspection of my Warre hive: Honeybees have already started to making honeycomb

 

The workers had released the queen and were already building comb as shown in the above picture.

1st Warre hive inspection_1
First inspection of my Warre hive

 

The queen is already laying eggs and was surrounded, several bees deep, by her protective workers. Since I don’t want to disturb the honeybees anymore than absolutely necessary, after filling the top bar feeders, I closed up the hive and counted my blessings. I’m very happy that the honeybees have decided to stay.

I must say that I’m glad that I ordered the large bee suit (I wear a small). I’m able to put my regular clothes on under the suit and still have plenty of room.

Yesterday, is when I’d originally planned on doing my first beehive inspection, however the day long rain put a stop to that. This morning, seeing clear skies, I promptly headed out to the hive to get the inspection out of the way. In total, I was in the hive less than five minutes. As I’ve already mentioned, I don’t want to disrupt the honeybees more than I have too.  I want to be as hands-free as possible.

Click the link, to check out all of my beekeeping adventures.

Natural Beekeeping/Gardening: Culling pests

Aynaria 6 Comments

Since I enjoy insects so much, especially honeybees, It’s only natural that I’m also thinking about the comfort of my daughter and myself, as I work on my honeybees brand-new home. We love to watch them!

In my last post about my Adventures in Beekeeping, Q of Curls & Q asked…

curls and q says:
June 6, 2013 at 12:24 pm

Do mosquitoes bother bees?
curls and q recently posted..Fiber Sandwich

Mosquitoes don’t seem to bother the honeybees. In fact, I see one or two resting on the outside of the beehive (glowers)  but I can’t say the same thing about us! Additionally ticks are rampant in the area where the Warre hive is which means it’s not really smart to hang out there for long… not if you don’t want to have one of those suckers on your body.

Plants - Insect repellent plants_1

 

Once we came back from Richardson’s Farm we had a tiny wagon load of plants. The plants I’m using are effective, I’ve used them in our garden for years as “natural pest repellents”. We have about an acre of organic garden on our property. The pests are controlled by using pest repelling plants (mint, lavender, citronella, garlic, etc.) and other natural remedies.

It took about two hours to break up the ground enough so that the flowers and herbs could be planted. The reason is simple, that part of our land has a lot of clay and rocks. It was a serious workout just to make the earth soft. Admittedly, this type of soil doesn’t make it the easiest setting for a flower garden but it’s doable. You just need patience.

Red Cedar Chips

More Landscaping and Before and after photos

Tomorrow, part of the area where we’d be hanging will receive a lot of attention from me to make it less tick & mosquito friendly. For starters, I’ll be tilling the ground and then I’ll lay down a carpet of red cedar chips (which is a mosquito and tick repellent). Honeybees don’t seem to mind red cedar. There are many beekeepers that have hives made of red cedar wood. Red cedar is very durable, and supposedly hives made with the wood don’t have to be waterproofed with paint.

The area that’s getting a “landscape makeover” is far enough away from the honeybees that they won’t be agitated by us checking them out. Although I’d love to put a grill back there, I think I won’t since I’m concerned that the potential smoke that could drift in their area might make them think that their hive is on fire.

This summer, I’m seriously thinking about building my own man-made koi pond. When I finally decide to do this, it’ll be located about 500 yards away from our  “bee sanctuary.” I’ve always wanted one, and if I’m going to install it somewhere, I think that location will be a great spot, further back is level ground and it doesn’t have as much clay/rocks. My only concern are the feral cats in our small community.

 

I’ll be sure to post before and after shots of the area.

Adventures in Beekeeping: Early morning “inspection”

Aynaria 2 Comments

Some of you might be curious as to how my honeybees are faring this morning. I installed the honeybees yesterday. They’re in a brand-new location far from the apiary in Georgia. They also have a new queen…

Warre hive - early morning view_1
Warre hive around 5:30 a.m. All the honeybees are inside.

 

This morning, around 5:30 a.m., I checked on them and as I suspected none of them were flying around outside. I didn’t panic and think they had absconded.

Honeybees in the early morning
See all the honeybees in this large cluster? They’re around the queen.

 

 

When I removed the observation window cover this is what I saw, the honeybees clustered around their queen. You can’t see her in that pile but she’s there. I’d say that they’ve accepted her.

Warre hive - early morning view_2
Our Warre hive is hidden by foilage

 

My Warre hive is partially hidden by all the foliage, if you’re walking down our dirt road you’d eventually see the hive but without an invite there would be no reason to be on our road.  Fallen trees block the dirt path that leads to woods,  which is still on our property.

Later today, I’ll be heading to Richardson Farms with the sole purpose of acquiring more plants that I know honeybees love. Also on the list will be herbs that repel mosquitos; Argeratum, Catnip, Citronella,  Horsemint and Marigolds.

Adventures in Beekeeping: A few photos of the honeybee installation

Aynaria 2 Comments

So it’s official, I’m now a beekeeper. About 11:00 a.m. I picked up my honeybees from the local Post Office.

Honeybees - Package Bees_1
Honeybees buzzing about

 

A few weeks ago, I’d already found the perfect spot. Shade most of the day and the sun peeks in on part of the hive in the mid afternoon. Also, there’s honeysuckle in the undergrowth behind the hive and my does it have the area smelling sweet.

 

Honeybees - Package Bees Installation_1
Honeybees are awesome

Since I was waiting to take my Warre Hive outside, the honeybees didn’t arrive in the hive immediately. Instead, I found a shaded spot to rest my honeybee package while I got their area ready. My daughter and I were fascinated with the honeybees. In the above photo I’d sprayed them with sugar water and was watching them use their little tongues to clean the sugar water off themselves and each other. 🙂

It took about three hours to get the Warre hive situated.  I had to dig up dirt that also had several roots/clay mixed in to make the task more challenging. After that was finished, I flattened the dirt to make it firm.  The leveler showed me that the hive was now level, I also made drainage tunnels since that rainwater would not well up around the hive. Much thanks to my father who lent a hand, if it weren’t for him this process would have taken much longer.

Installing the honeybees into their Warre Hive

After donning my bee suit, I lightly sprayed them with sugar water and shook the package honeybees to make sure they fell into the bottom. I really didn’t need to spray them with sugar water. Michael Bush, suggests that this isn’t needed. Next time, I’ll install the honeybees without and see what happens.

Honeybees - Package Bees Installation_Queen
Honeybee: Meet the queen!

 

I removed the feeding can that was included with the package honeybees and also grabbed the queens cage. What you can’t see in the above picture, are the queens attendants. There were four in the cage, one was dead. I removed the plug and replaced it with a marshmallow, and then placed it into the Warre hive.

Honeybees - Package Bees Installation_0
Warre Hive: Installing my package honeybees

 

Since I now had the hive area  just the way I wanted, it was time to install the honeybees.

 

Warre Hive – package honeybee installation

 

 

And I must say the installation was easy. I shook them out into the Warre hive a few buzzed around me. It’s hard to describe the feeling, seeing and hearing a living vibrant community of 10,000 – 12,000 honeybees buzzing about you, it was almost zen-like and a tad bit intimidating for a first time beekeeper but I remained calm. I’ve seen numerous videos and know this usually isn’t a big deal, and I was right. I had a few that buzzed and landed on me, they flew away after they were satisfied. Perhaps they were thanking me for releasing them from their tiny prison?

Afterwards my daughter and I hung out with the honeybees for at least three hours. About an hour ago, I strolled out to the hive and was pleased to see that they were doing well. There was only about twenty honeybees outside. I walked up to the hive, without a bee suit, and hung out with them for a while. I’m one happy beekeeper.

Here’s hoping my honeybees decide to stay.

Adventures in Beekeeping: They’re here!

Aynaria 2 Comments

Earlier this morning, I received  a call from the US Postal office that my honeybees have finally arrived. I don’t have any pictures since I haven’t picked them up from the Post Office.

I’ll be getting them around 11:00 a.m EST. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post pictures sometime today. My daughter is almost as excited as myself. I’ll be picking her up from school early, so she can accompany me when I get the honeybees. She begged to come along.

I held off setting my Warre Beehive outside, but I’ll be doing that once I return home. I ordered my honeybees from, Draper Bees I called them yesterday. One of the owners (the son) chatted with me a while and told me that if I have any questions to give them a call.

Next year, If I do have to purchase honeybees, it’ll be local however if you do have to order package honeybees I have no problem recommending Draper honeybees. Their customer service is excellent and they’ve done an amazing job keeping their customers updated through emails and posts on their Facebook page.