micky wrote:
On Sun, 4 May 2014 21:29:41 -0500, "Terry Coombs"
wrote:

micky wrote:
On Sun, 04 May 2014 20:04:45 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 5/4/2014 7:04 PM, micky wrote:
My new cherry tree NW of Baltimore didn't seem to have many bugs
fertilizing it. Just 4 when I looked, two honey bees and two
other things about half as big and all black.

Is this because of the deaths of so many honey bees?

What were these other things?

I'm not sure they were even big enough to do the accidental
fertilizing that honey bees do.

Do you think this will cause a shortage of fruit on the tree? It
had loads of flowers,

If there isn't much fruit, how do I fertilize the flowers myself
next year? A brush? A toothbrush?


I wonder if an unusually cold winter may have something to do with
it? I think a lot of the bugs aren't around here in Alabamastan
after the very cold winter weather we had. ^_^

There aren't any more stink bugs, afaict, and two bushes in front of
my house which have been dying slowly, finally died completely, and
the ivy that was all around the bed all seemed to die, the first
time that any ivy died.

For next year, if necessary, I know you can buy lady bugs, but I've
never heard of buying honey bees, unless it's a whole hive. I don't
want to be bothered with a whole hive. Plus I suppose it would be
expensive these days. It's still a small tree. If the flowers
were still there, I'd be happy to pollinate them myself. It would
have take no more than 2 hours, I think.


I'll be taking posession of my hive later this month . I'm getting
a going hive with a brood super and one honey super for $350 -
that's hive , bees and all . I could have done it mail order package
bees and built my own supers/frames/etc for less money , but ...
This will be an established "family" , vs the mail order route which
is basically a new queen and a bunch of strangers . Additionally ,
these bees are local , and acclimated to this area . And once I have
a hive going well I can split it for just the cost of hive
bodies/etc . I think this first hive will be going over in the
orchard . I just wish it were here already , the blueberries are
blooming and the blackberries are budding , expected to bloom in 3-6
days .

And I gather there aren't enough air-crittrers to pollinate the black
and blue berries? I'll bet you could do it yourself with some sort
of brush.

We haven't had a problem with non-pollination , and I'm for sure not going
to crawl around in the woods hand pollinating several dozen blueberry bushes
.. actually , these are low-bush huckleberries


350 isn't such a bad price, but I'm not in the mood for more projects.

The beauty of doing it this way is that the seller does all the really
hard work - getting things going . I'll be attending a beekeeping class
later this month , but don't expect to have a lot of time invested until
time to collect some honey .



Won't I need gloves and overalls and hat with a mask? Won't I have
to read bee podcasts? Or beecasts, as I call them. Well, you
didnt' say I'd have to do anything, only what you were doing. Fair
enough.

There are a lot of local beekeeping orgs around , but nothing says you
have to join ... you can probably find all the info you need in an afternoon
, print it out for later reference . Gloves , screened hat , smoker , and a
couple of small hand tools can all be had for well under a hundred bucks .
We decided to get into beekeeping as much for the honey as for the
pollination aspect . We have pollinators here , but they don't have the
added bonus of hunney ...
My wife is a big fan of the W the P character Eeyore , and so our place
has been named "The 12 Acre Wood" and the house is "Eeyore's Hideaway" ...
and so we'll be getting "hunney".
--
Snag