Bearding Bees on the Roof + Bee Cam Mania

So yes, Art's a crazy man with the closed-circuit cameras, but what a fun obsession. It's a long way to the roof, relatively speaking, and being able to watch what's going on with the hives wouldn't be possible unless we lived up there (don't put it past us when the weather cools).

We have three monitors down here at my desk featuring rooftop hive action. I made the pictures below by photographing the monitors so you could see what I see.

Here's this year's new hive, with the Italians
bearding up on a hot hot late afternoon.

There are lots of places to read up on bearding. From gardenweb:

Bearding is a form of hive air-conditioning; the bees depart the immediate brood nest area in order to help keep it at the desired temperature (too many busy bee bodies = too many BTUs). When you see all the bees outside the hive an hour before sundown, you'll also notice the following morning (early a.m.), most if not all, have gone back inside the hive because the outside air temperature (and thus the hive temp) has dropped - again, just a way they regulate the brood nest temperature.

Here's Hive 1, with an amazing lip beard

(Kara's description and right on)

KirkoBeeo at Backward Beekeepers has this to says about bearding:

When we checked out the hive the bees were bearding on the outside of the hive. This is a sign of crowding and it being pretty hot.

Since Noam checked the hives the last day of July and augmented their living space (top photo), we're not too concerned about crowding...but our Chicago weather has been nothing but hot and humid.

Introducing the third bee cam, just installed by Art, who wanted a side view. He noticed when the bees beard they pile on top of each other, forming a thick layer of bees atop bees.

Here are the Italians in a side view,
same moment as as the photo two up.

We're looking forward to Sunday, our first honey harvest. Stay tuned for more.

And by the way, there's another meaning to the term "bee beard"...

How I Made My Worm farm

A worm bin is like a farm with worms. You feed the worms and harvest their poop (called worm castings) to use as fertilizer for plants. Castings can also be used in a SIP. My worms are from Bill Shores who is Rick Bayless's gardener. I got half a pound of live Eisenia foetida, also known as red wriggler worms. This species are best for composting.

Here's how I made my worm farm...

Materials:
1/2 pound of red wriggler worms
Rectangular 10 gallon plastic bin or larger with lid
Drill with a 1/4 " drill bit

Ingredients for bedding:
Used potting mix, peat moss or coir which is coconut fiber to fill at least half the bin
Corrugated cardboard
Used coffee grounds
2 teaspoons of sand
Newspaper cut into thin 1/4" strips or put through a paper shredder. No glossy paper.
Water

Rinse the 10 gallon bin and drill 1/4" holes around the top
3"- 4" apart and 3" from the top.

To make the bedding I used coir, which is compressed coconut fiber.
To use it just soak it in water.

You will need enough to fill your bin at least half way up or more
with whatever material you use. I used 5 small blocks of coir.

Next I had to squeeze out the water till it felt like a wet sponge
and slightly crumbly.

I added 2 teaspoons of sand to help the worms digest their food.

I added newspaper cut in 1/4" strips. You can also use an
office paper shredder. Do not use glossy paper.


Mix it all up and add water if needed. The bedding should be like
a wrung out sponge.

Cut the cardboard in small pieces and cut one the size of
the bin. Next soak the cardboard pieces till they are wet.

Add the worms and watch then disappear in to the bedding!

Wait 3 to 5 days for the worms to settle in to their new home
before feeding them. They should be fed once a week. My worms had
kale, a corn cob, beet stems and for dessert some red grapes!

When not visiting your worms cover them up with wet cardboard
to keep their home moist and so that flies don't lay eggs in their home.

Goodnight worms. See you in the morning!
XO Kara

Rooftop Vegetable Pictures

Most of my vegetables are thriving, with only a few disappointments.

Okra flowers are stunning.  The long green pods, briefly grilled and tossed with olive oil and curry powder, are surprisingly tasty.



Squash Vine Borers got my acorn squash again this year. It looks like I'm going to start using floating row covers if I want any type of squash.



Carmona sweet peppers are just starting to ripen.  The plants are prolific, and the fruits are large. Perfect roasted and turned into muhummara.



Co-blogger Debbie came over for a tour of my roof. Peppers are behind me, melon and beans in front.



My eggplants have really produced.  Here are some Diamond.  I think, maybe they're Black Beauty.  In addition, I have a couple of asian varieties, Ping tung long and Udumalapet.  If you're looking for ideas on what to do with all your eggplant, crack open an Indian cookbook.  They've been making eggplant delicious for 5000 years.

About half my tomatoes are going strong, the other half have black fuzz and dying flowers.  Rooftop squirrels seem to be taking more than their share this year.


[Thanks to H2 for all the great photos.]

Farm Camp at Angelic Organics Farm

I got to meet Farmer John, a real farmer!

In Caledonia, Illinois at Angelic Organics Farm I met Farmer John. He is the owner of the largest CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture) in the US. He has farmed since he was 9 so he has lots of farming experience. Farmer John said that farming is hard work. He grows his vegetables organically and does not use chemicals.

His farm is a blast. The chickens, the goats, the horse, everything! Especially the farm camp. Playing in the irrigation sprinkler was the muddiest! We also learned about bees and that female bees (workers bees) get to kick the male bees out of the hive in the winter because they hardly do anything.

We also made ice cream with goats milk, it was unexpectedly tasty, it tasted like normal ice cream except a little icier. Deb Crockett, one of the nice camp counselors, was kind enough to share the recipe with me so I could share it with you.

I like holding chickens but they are hard to catch!

Making a chicken coop for the chickens was fun!

This young calf is named May.

This is Babe and she is a very old horse.

Did you know that goats can see 320-340 degrees around them
because they have rectangular pupils?

Farm camp was the best camp ever. I will definitely be back for more!

Kara



Goat Milk Ice Cream

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups goat milk
1/2 cup cream
1 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt

Kitchen tools:
Ice cream maker
Mixing spoon
Measuring cups and spoons
Large bowl
Funnel

What to Do:

1) Pour all ingredients in a large bowl.
2) Pour into to an ice cream maker with funnel and operate for 30-45 minutes until ready to eat.
3) Top with fresh berries if available.

Yum!

Hermitage Triangle Community Garden

With the help of NeighborSpace, a few of my neighbors and I turned a vacant city lot into a small community garden. 


There have been several stops and starts in the lengthy planning process; we finally got our donated topsoil at the end of May. Then the work began: Soil testing, water issues, fertilizer, dodging "free" compost, mulch, and finally, planting.

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From a pile of old 2x12 Douglas Fir joists donated from a building renovation project, we marked out the plots and turned them over to our enthusiastic gardeners.

[Click on any of the images for a larger view]

I built a couple A-frame tomato trellises out of a few of the old Douglas Fir joists.

The community garden, as seen from my rooftop garden, the first week in June, 2010.

We built a short fence around the backside of the garden with some of the Douglas Fir joists and rolls of donated willow screening. In the background you can see my rooftop garden.

From the old joists, Art and I are holding pieces, I also made a picnic table and two benches that will go under the tree at the north end of the garden.

This is the first of a series of rain barrels that will collect, then distribute, rooftop water for the garden.


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[As usual, all photos, as well as the conversion of the plot plan image from a pdf to a jpg file, done by H2. Thanks!]

July 2010: 100 Degrees+ on the Chicago Roof Farm

I walked to the bank after lunch and the thermometer read 100. It's blazing hot on the roof, a gift to the vegetables, though the bees' water trough was dry.



I'm grateful for the larger SIPs we set up for the tomatoes and eggplants--the water reservoir is at least four times that of the 5-gal SIPs. Here's a beautiful cluster of an unknown variety. Anyone have an idea?

In the wake of our failed spring tomato starts and the subsequent rush to locate heirloom varieties in the neighborhood and get them planted, my labeling system apparently collapsed, or at least several labels flew off their buckets. Hence the mystery of the beautiful pleated bundle above.

Other rooftop puzzles include this beauty, possibly an Italian grape, a gift from Debbie, Kara's mom.


Here are a few I can identify:

Black Prince,
from green to orange to dusky dark.

Brandywine Pink.

Cherokee purple.

Black velvet.

Given the bounty, we're not too worried about exact identification (that's a fib--we really do like to know).

The melons already need twice daily watering in this heat.

And I had to put a cloche on the red giant mustard seeds I started this morning. Otherwise the seeds dry out too quickly in the heat and can't germinate.

The baby bok choy and Debbie's heat-tolerant lettuce we planted just last week are flourishing.

The Armenian cukes are (cross fingers) powdery mildew free and happily climbing Art's trellis. I'd never started cukes in June--always in cooler, wetter May, which may be why they've always been decimated by powdery-mildew.


Bruce has been pickling vegetables. He brought over a sampler to have with our lunch. I hope he blogs about it soon.

Delectable pickled zucchini, onions, and eggplant
(the latter from his garage roof).

He cut up some of our tomatoes.

I made these flatbreads, somehow convinced that baking them on a cast iron griddle on top of the stove would be less hot than in the oven (it wasn't).

Art started building a sandwich on the flatbread with Bruce's pickled onion and avocado.

A cool lunch on a hot day.