New Hive in the Hood

Bruce has a beehive, nice complement to his expanding agrarian plot in Chicago. Tended by volunteers from the Garfield Park Conservatory (click on the link to see the horrendous damage from last year's hailstorm), the hive sits on the roof of his garage.

When I stopped by last week to pick up the beautiful tomato/eggplant/pepper starts that Bruce has been tending, the crew was cracking the hive for a closer look. All is well.

Trimming a large tree means this eastern garden bed gets a lot of nice light. It's filled with herbs including white borage that popped up from last year, and will soon host a couple tomato plants.

Speaking of bees, over on our roof Noam was surprised to find we were missing two queens. Undaunted, we ordered more from Simpsons in Ohio. They were shipped with clear instructions for the post office to hold for Noam's pick-up, but instead our delivery person dumped them through the mail slot.  The queens are currently caged but in position, their pheromones wafting through the two hives. We'll be underway again soon.