Beezy Summer

This year I started my pepper and tomato seeds around the second week of March, using old broasted chicken containers (the ones with the clear plastic lids) as mini-greenhouses for sprouting. Within 2 weeks the seedlings were big enough to pot, and this year I used clear plastic 9 ounce cups as pots instead of the little paper cups. Three 1/8 inch holes were drilled in the bottom of each. The resulting plants were the healthiest seedlings I have ever raised.

Spring was late in coming -- too much cold weather due to global warming -- and it was late May before I could set any plants out safely. Meanwhile, I was shown some interesting things that are being done with container gardening, so I decide to experiment with that a bit. I turned some old mayonnaise jars into mini-containters:

Those seemed a bit small for normal sized plants, so I recycled some Folgers coffee cans.

Each can was supplied with a 2 inch high ring of 4 inch perforated drainpipe. The ring would serve as a stand-off to produce a water storage chamber.

That made a base for the next component, a spare coffee can lid cut to fit just inside the can, and also supplied with a roughly 3 inch hole for a 9 ounce plastic drink cup (perforated with many 1/8 inch holes to allow water to get in), and a hole for the 1/2 inch filler pipe. This lid formed the bottom of the dirt container.

Here it is with the cup installed ...

... and here with the filler pipe.

Then it is topped with another lid. A 3/16 inch hole was drilled just below the lower lid (dirt base) as an overflow hole. I did not make it any bigger, because I did not want mosquitoes getting inside to breed.

Some say that once I get started, I don't have the good sense to know when to quit ...

So here it is, July, and the container seems to suit the cayenne peppers just fine.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, trouble is brewing, and I don't mean the coffee cans. The evening of May 28, HP called and said that Roger Webel was looking for me -- he had a swarm hanging in his apple tree. The next morning, before the sun got above the trees, with the temperature in the 50's and the grass wet with dew, I took my stepladder, a cardboard box with a lid, and a spray bottle with sugar water to Roger's house. I spritzed the swarm with the sugar water, put the box underneath, gave the branch a couple of hard shakes, and almost every one of the bees fell into the box. I put the lid on it, stuck it in the trunk of my car, and drove home. The box of bees was then dumped into an empty 8-frame super and covered. Two days later, they were working themselves to death.

However, it has been about 6 weeks since they moved in. Usually, a healthy hive, following the black locust and basswood bloom, will have bees overflowing the front entry. These have not been that prolific. And then, the other day, I noticed this :

Not so happy when the bees run around on the ground with frizzy wings.

So, Saturday I opened up the hive. The queen is laying well, and there is plenty of capped brood. I inserted some Apistan strips; if the mites aren't brought under control, the hive will die. By the end of August, hopefully, there will be plenty of healthy bees. I'll just have to feed them as much as I can to prep them for winter.