The bee part of my plan is finally starting to come together, amidst all the other bustle of getting the garden ready for spring, and remodeling the basement. Here's my self assessment:

Bee Plus
A couple weeks ago, my wife alerted me to a Craigslist posting that someone had a swarm of bees in their yard, not far from our neighborhood. I left work early that Tuesday afternoon, grabbing a box, raincoat, goggles, gloves, and pruning shears, from home along the way. The guy who'd posted the bees showed me where the parent hive was holed up in the rock face of his underground home. He said they had also swarmed the previous year (which was a bad year for bees!), so regardless of honey production, it was evident that this swarm was prolific breeding stock. I suited up into my raincoat, goggles, and gloves, snipped the branch the swarm was on, and lowered it carefully into the box. It was a sting free operation. I taped the box closed and brought it home. I wasn't quite sure how to get the bees into my top bar hive, and so removed the hive partition, and just put the branch in, with most of the bees still clinging to it. Since I only had top bars for half the enclosure, I sealed up the other half with cardboard, and decided to wait for the bees to settle in. Perhaps they sensed the impending May snowstorm, but they never quite settled in, and left early that Saturday, probably taking up residence in some neighbor's chimney. It snowed that night for a day and a half, so I hope they found a good shelter, wherever it was.

It was like being dumped, my honey had left me, and I was bummed for days, but last Sunday, oila! the same guy posted that he had another swarm. In the meantime, I'd done a little more research, watched some YouTube videos, and made some choice upgrades to the top bar enclosure, including some lemongrass oil to make it smell like queen bee pheromone. I repeated the collection exercise, pretty much the same as before, but when I got them home, instead of putting the branch into the hive, I diligently shook all the bees into the hive and buttoned it up with partition, to make the ideal volume for the new swarm. The next morning I saw a good chunk of the swarm hanging on the outside of the enclosure, so swept them into a dustpan and poured them back into the hive. Then, with the help of my visiting parents, set about making some sugar syrup and filled up a hummingbird feeder (bee guards removed) for them to suckle on next to the hive. One week later, they appear to still be there, setting up house, hauling out the dead, and depositing propolis in the seams.

F is for Grafting
Earlier in the spring I had obtained ten apple scions which I unsuccessfully grafted onto my two crabapple trees. Not a single one took. I suspected that perhaps I had waited too long between getting the scions and doing the grafting (bad weather in late March/early April) and the scions had all a bit of fungal infection. Then my neighbor gave me some peach and Asian pear scions, and I tried again (on peach and pear trees, not crabapple), again with no success. Will have to wait until next spring to try again... with a bit more diligence and research perhaps.

Incomplete for Hugelkultur, but an A for Effort
Back in February I had started clearing a spot for a raised bed hugelkultur berm. There was a large ponderosa that had died in my backyard, and so, borrowing the neighbor's chainsaw I dropped and chopped it into the base layer of my horsesh&% berm (where &% = oe and it). In late April, I finally got my trailer finished and used it to pick up a couple loads of manure from the local stables, and spent a whole day shoveling sh&%, for the middle layer. I covered it with some clay/soil, planted some peas, kale, cukes, and radishes, plus some 3 sisters combos, and topped it off with some mulch. Most of it is coming up now. Retaining walls are still in the works. I built the trellis to provide shade, give the cukes and peas something to climb, and create a little fort for the kids.


Pending Potatoes and Paw Paws
Scavenged a couple of old pallets from the receiving dock at work and fashioned the lumber into a 1m x1m stackable layer system for my potato bed, which I planted with sprouted potatoes and yams from the kitchen, and leaves from my 2012 leaf stores. I also mail ordered a couple of paw paw trees, which I potted, and are thriving in the shade of my living room. Unfortunately, it'll be a couple years at least before I have the pleasure of eating the fruit.

Meanwhile, back in the basement
Construction is drawing to a close- just need to paint, before proceeding with aquaponics. My wife has sourced a few 10gal aquariums (average price under $2) for my modular grow beds, unfortunately one of them still contains hermit crabs. I'm content to observe them for now, to see what niche they could fill in a full up CELSS... . Four modules will be sufficient to get me started, and the yard sale season is still young. Hopefully we can find a good deal on Hydroton, my preferred grow media. I may eventually research how to make my own grow media, but reserve that topic for another post.