Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Sunday, May 22, 2011

And then they just flew away.....

Ingrates.

The beez from the green hive swarmed (split) yesterday. We were so excited to get 'free beez' and had a whole new hive all ready for the "new" beez.....

The swarm formed a ball like cluster - its that sock-like thing hanging off that little branch waaaaaaay up there.

...and then... and then.... they all just flew away. Not into their new home - our carefully prepared hive -they just flew away. Sheesh! And no, we couldn't get them because they were about 40 feet up into a tree. We ran thru all the options to try and capture the swarm. But we didn't have a hot air balloon and we couldn't find a trebuchet on such short notice. Bye beez.

Basil, lavender, and rosemary - started from seeds.

In other news... I did a lot of planting and seed starting this weekend. We finally had some dry, warm, sunny days - it was just like summer. I ended up buying some seedlings from a local nursery because everything is getting such a late start. It was barely dry enough to do some tilling but I just couldn't wait any longer.

* Red sweet peppers long fence line in 2nd hillside garden, one Red Oxhart tomato in corner.
* 8 Mountain Gold maters in the next row along walkway, with one more Red Oxhart at the end.
* One Thai pepper, then one Red Oxhart, then 3 Mountain Golds in last year's bean bed. They are next too the row of my-seed-started Romas in front of the Grimes Gold - which has a couple apples on it!
* One Mountain Gold and One Oxhart in the blueberry and herb garden. I know - a weird combination but it just worked out that way.
* Finally, the last couple Mountain Golds and the rest of the Red Oxharts along the fence line near the mailbox tool holder. I'm testing the Mountain Golds in several soil conditions - the hillside was improved with a ton of super-duper-cow-poop...and is still dark and rich. The bean bed was improved with beans and buckwheat last year, and the fence line has the extra rich compost from a friend earlier this spring. I'll be watching to see which grouping/soil condition does the best.
* I planted a package of "half price sale" asparagus roots next to the existing plants. Then I planted a row of the my-seed-started plants. I put up a picket fence panel to keep the dogs out... then realized that I could use it to support some peas on one side and then a row of gladiolas on the other.
* Tilling went pretty well. I mowed down the winter rye in the second bean bed, a new potato place, and then re-tilled a couple other spots.

The only thing I didn't get to was to till in some clover seeds near the fruit tree in the corner. I got done with the planting and then we got the chores finished and now here comes the storm. Wow! The wind is pretty strong - maybe we'll see if the pigz are gonna fly! Yikes!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! sorry about your swarm leaving!

So glad you finally got some nice weather! I think we're all so over that rain!

Anonymous said...

Oh...your blessed to have a swarm! Too bad it had to fly off though. We have a few beehives but they don't seem to be doing too good - we're praying they will swarm but...they're stubborn. May the Lord Jesus bless you.

Autumn said...

My Pap's bees came from a split swarm for free (as long as he could get them) thankfully, they were only about six feet off the ground! It stinks that your swarm flew off!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about the swarm, but you sound just like me when it comes to the tilling. Hubs kept telling me it was too wet, but I didn't care. It supposed to rain until July and if I don't get SOMETHING in the ground, we'll starve.

Thanks for letting me know about the possibility of Green Muscle Disease. I'll keep an eye out when we butcher. I'm really hoping it's not because the ick factor will make me dispose of the whole bird, no matter how harmless the rest of the meat might be!

Veggie PAK said...

So sorry about the bees. I know that was traumatic seeing them fly away after all your preparation. I hope one swarm flies to you to replace the wandering ones.

Chai Chai said...

Trebuchet. How many people are going to get a mid-evil siege artillery reference. One of the many reasons I love reading your blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsXJCMlOeDs&feature=player_embedded

Of course the fireball wouldn't be used to coerce the bees back to the hive...I think.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Hey Aly - stupid beeeeez.

Thank you for your blessing, April! We keep thinking that our hives are strong and we are 'sending tough beez' out to replenish the wild ones.

Autumn - free beez are the best. We have some ordered but they are a little over $100. Drat!

You are just right Allie, I'm giving up and just starting everything in seed trays. Let me know how your meats go - we kept the back quarters for our dogs (cooked for a LONG time) and just considered it a loss.

hi VPak! We are keeping an eye out for more swarms. Hopefully we'll find them - maybe in our back woods.

CC - I'm just a fool for siege engines of all types. The thought was to put a helmet on Nibbles and a bed sheet as a parachute and launch her boldly where no goat has gone before.
;-)

Summersweet Farm said...

Aw, I'm so sorry about your bees! I would probably cry! :(

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