July 23rd Week 5

The bees swarmed last week. Joni, my mom, and I were on our way hiking when I got a call from Kyle. He and Joyce had noticed the bees acting funny and by the time he phoned me there were two swarms. One was buzzing over the sunflowers, and one was over the far gate in the field. He and Joyce fled to the greenhouse and said the bees were so loud you could hear them clearly from there. I connected Kyle with Bob who takes care of the bees, and he said they should settle quickly and were unlikely to be hostile. When I returned from our overnight trip there were still bees in the hive and also a group collected on a branch overhanging the gate where Kyle had originally seen them. We went about our day, working in the garden and Kyle flame weeded all the aisles. The next morning Ashlee who cuts flowers found a swarm cluster in the sunflowers. From afar she thought it was a chicken hanging out, and we all went to check them out and take a few photos. Amazingly Kyle must have flame weeded right next to them and didn’t notice and the bees didn’t react. I texted Bob who came over and suited up to try and catch this reachable swarm. Ashlee and I watched from a few rows over as Bob clipped off branches of the sunflowers and the bees fell into a “swarm catcher” box. All was smooth until Bob said “Oh shit” and a branch loaded with bees missed the box and fell to the ground. That was our cue to flee quickly and we watched from the end of the row as Bob stayed crouched down trying to gather up the fallen bees. Bob took the box home and investigated the remaining hive which to his eyes still appeared healthy. He said the hive was full of honey and they might have gotten “honey bound” and decided to shrink their numbers. Bob had added an extra box to the hive last week but he said they might have made a decision to do this weeks ago, and once they make a plan you can’t stop it. The whole experience was both very exciting and interesting, and left Ashlee and I both laughing about never knowing what we will experience out here in the gardens day to day and grateful for the variability.

In the share:

Please take 8 items

I am picking basil this week as it needs to be topped, but always feel free to go grab as much as you need in the garden. Husk cherries are just starting to mature as well and those will be self serve in upcoming weeks also.

• Sungold Tomatoes

• Celery

• Parsley

• Green Curly Lettuce

• Kale

• Carrots

• Beets

• Green Yellow Onions

• Eggplant

• Green Sweet Peppers

• Rainbow Chard

• Kohlrabi

• Cabbage

• Summer Squash

• Cucumbers

• Basil