Miscellaneous: Fountain restored

The fountain in our garden was designed by me and made from a basalt column into which I had a bowl carved and a bore hole drilled to allow a hose to pass through to a pump that sits in a depressed reservoir below the pump. We set it up in 2001 or so with the help of my wife's father, who has years of experience handling stone in Japan. The drilled column was delivered to our driveway. We had to transport it about 70 yards to the back of the house, a move we accomplished with a skid and rollers, likening ourselves to ancient pyramid builders. Using levers, we then raised it into its upright position and secured it to its base. It functioned without problems until last autumn when the pump finally failed. I have no complaints, the pump lasted a good 22 years, but I missed the fountain immediately. 

The problem of reviving it has been on my mind many months. The thought of exposing the reservoir (hidden by a wire mesh covered with rocks), cleaning out the reservoir (which had an eight-inch layer of muck in the bottom from 20+ years of decaying plant debris falling into it), replacing the pump (which required disconnecting the old pump and hard-wiring in its replacement), and then putting the whole thing back together again was enough to keep me procrastinating.

I'm happy to say that, with a great deal of help from my friend David (always willing to lend a hand), it's up and running again. Sitting on the back deck is much more pleasant with the burbling fountain there. Also, in very hot weather the bees from our beehive like to collect water from the side of the stone pillar to cool the hive with. As a heat wave is supposed to descend on us from tomorrow for a week or ten days, the repair was completed just in time.
 

Art I'm Making: Macro Photography

I've recently become interested in local insects more than in the past because of a couple of gigs doing bird surveys on private property in the county where, in both cases, the people asking me to catalog the birds present are interested in everything—birds, wildflowers, insects. 

Photographing insects with the same long telephoto lens I use to photograph birds actually works quite well, but I thought it time to get a dedicated macro lens. Olympus makes a very highly rated macro lens (60mm, f2.8) that I was able to find fairly inexpensively used. I've only been able to go on a few outings with this new lens, but, so far, it's proved hit or miss. The extremely shallow depth of field makes it a challenge to get anything in focus—particularly critters that don't hold still. 

So far, I've had the best luck (and a great deal of luck seems to be required) with the most common of insects—honeybees and house flies. I'm hoping to capture something a little more exotic before too long. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

Miscellaneous: Bees Again

Having lost our bees again over the summer of 2020, I was trying to decide whether to buy new bees this spring while hoping a swarm would move in on its own back in April, and a swarm did, in fact, find one of our two empty hives and take up residence. So, we have bees again. For the past ten years or so, it's been hard to keep a hive going. This is the third or fourth year that bees have moved in on their own. At first, they look strong, but they seem to lose energy and focus and over the summer the colony fails. We haven't harvested honey since 2013. 

I'm hoping for the best this year. So far, the bees seem happy. They are bringing in nectar and pollen from the sea of flowers blooming in the garden, which is near its spring peak. 

Beekeeping: New Bees Again (June 9, 2020)

Yesterday, friends notified me that their bees had swarmed and that the bees were hanging out in a very easily accessible location low on a fig tree. I was happy to pick them up. It was about the easiest swarm capture I've ever done. The bees dropped easily into my homemade swarm capture box and I drove them home on the car seat next to me. About five years ago I captured a swarm that subsequently left not too long after I installed them or they succumbed to the so-called "disappearing disease." I hope these new bees fare better. I still had the two deep hive boxes from the last swarm and today I added a super and a queen excluder to give them more room. I also decided to feed them a little to get them off to a good start. We'll see....

[Edit: Today is June 14, so the bees have been in the new hive for five days now. Today for the first time I noticed bees bringing in pollen, which is a good sign, as it means there is brood to feed or there will be soon. Until today, all the bees I saw coming back to the hive were bringing in nectar only. They need nectar to produce wax. As these were installed on bare foundation (no drawn comb) they will have had to build comb from scratch. It's amazing how quickly they work. They can build a significant amount of comb in a day, so I suspect things are progressing well. I won't open the hive to check on things, though, for a couple of weeks. You can tell everything you need to know usually just by watching the patterns of activity. And, as I say, pollen coming in is a good sign.]

Miscellaneous: Swarm moves in (April 13, 2019)

The last few days, a number of bees had been checking out one of our two empty beehives in the back garden. I was hoping it might be a scouting party for a swarm looking for a new home. And yesterday the air was full of bees and a large clump quickly formed on the alighting board in front of one of the hives.

We haven't had bees for two seasons. It will be nice to have bees again. I hope they become established and find their new home comfortable. Right now they seem to be cleaning things up, pushing dead earwigs and other debris out the front door. A new hive start has gotten so expensive now (I've heard as much as about $180), that a free swarm is a real gift. When I started keeping bees, in 2001, a hive start cost about $35.

Beekeeping: Bees Are Back

I lost my bees last season--again. The hive has been sitting empty all winter, inhabited mostly by foraging ants. It was getting to be about the time to find a new swarm. I was going to post an ad on Craig'sList, as I did last time I needed bees.

Last year, I picked up new bees from a man in Vallejo with a couple of hives, one of which had swarmed. The swarm was hanging in a plum tree over his garage. Retrieving it involved climbing up on the roof. This year I've been spared that kind of trouble. I noticed a few bees around the hive entrance at home about a week ago and a lot of activity a few days later, suggesting a swarm had moved in on its own. Checking today, I see normal spring activity--a lot of bees coming and going. Bees coming in are packed with pollen, so they're raising brood. Nice to have the bees back.

Plants I'm Growing: Cactus Flowers (May 8, 2012)

Not technically in my own garden, but across the street in the rock park we live by, the first week of May usually brings a spectacular show of cactus blossoms. This year has been no exception. Yesterday, there must have been several hundred flowers open at once. The honeybees love these flowers for their copious pollen. People love them simply because they are so extravagantly big and eye-catching.

Beekeeping: New Swarm Installed (April 21, 2013)

Yesterday I was offered a swarm of bees in Vallejo, about an hour's drive away, but it was worth the trip. My bees died over last winter. I was looking for a swarm. New bees are now about $100 for a hive start, which seems a lot of money, as I bought my first package of bees for only $35--but that was back in 2001 or so--long before so many bee colonies began failing. I had to climb up on a garage roof and help the owner, a beekeeper himself (thanks, David) lop branches off a plum tree to get to the cluster of bees. I got them in a box prepared for the purpose and then drove home with them on the seat beside me. In the late afternoon, I deposited the swarm in an empty hive. The bees were rather agitated for a while and a couple of groups spent the night in little clusters outside the hive, but, by this morning, they seemed to have taken to their new home and I'm hopeful they'll thrive. It takes about 21 days to raise a new bee. By the first week of May I should know if the queen is laying and worker bee numbers are growing.

Beekeeping: Bees Swarmed Today

The bees decided to swarm today. I nearly walked into a huge ball of bees hanging from the arbor that supports the hammock. Usually bees hang out to congregate near the hive they are leaving before flying off to a new hive site, but I get the feeling they were planning to stay, as they had already begun to lay down wax on the wood for new comb. It's amazing how fast they work. I was surprised also by the number of bees in the swarm. I dropped the box I was capturing them in because it got to be so much heavier than I expected, and I got stung several times on the ankle in response--the first time I've ever been stung handling a swarm. My ankle is swollen and itchy already. Still, I seem to have got the queen in the box. I have no room for a second hive, so I aim to sell this swarm on Craig's List. Any takers?