Washingtonians

[Chicken Rustler]

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Wrong try again. Do you realise that 2 years of no bees and mankind is done!!! Mason bees actually do way more pollination than honey's. The other thing is that different bees fly at different temps. Masons are one of the first to start in the spring. And then bumbles and then honey's.
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While I do agree on not feeding them. Sometimes it is needed to give a struggling hive a boost. I don't feed regularly (like many). I believe in survival of the fitest. Also feeding them too much makes lazy bees and why would I want lazy bees making fake honey one of sugar syrup?
Honey and mason bees should be the least concern of somebody who is allergic. They are not normally aggressive unless you get them bound in clothing OR ifyou get too close to the hive.

 

[hallerlake]

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Wrong try again. Do you realise that 2 years of no bees and mankind is done!!! Mason bees actually do way more pollination than honey's. The other thing is that different bees fly at different temps. Masons are one of the first to start in the spring. And then bumbles and then honey's.
Quote:
While I do agree on not feeding them. Sometimes it is needed to give a struggling hive a boost. I don't feed regularly (like many). I believe in survival of the fitest. Also feeding them too much makes lazy bees and why would I want lazy bees making fake honey one of sugar syrup?
Honey and mason bees should be the least concern of somebody who is allergic. They are not normally aggressive unless you get them bound in clothing OR ifyou get too close to the hive.

There would still be plenty of wind pollinated grains, but it would be a very unbalanced diet.

When I was a little girl (under five years old), I used to catch bees because I liked to hear them buzz. Naturally, they stung me. After a while, I developed an allergic reaction, and the doctor said the next one would kill me, so I stopped.

 

[DIYSeattle]

Today much of what we eat is actually propagated in a laboratory environment through tissue culture. Already potatoes, carrots, and pineapple are invitro propagated. There are probably a lot more than we realize or know about as consumers. I no doubtedly beleive that no bees would be a definate bad thing, they arent needed anymore for a lot of plants that are raised commercially. Fruits like cherries, apples, and plums need them to make fruit though, etc.

Agave sweetener has been likened to high fructose corn syrup in its processing and manufacturing.

My stevia seeds did not produce any viable plants. They are normally propagated through cuttings or tc, as with other things, they vary in sweetness depending on genetics.

 

[Illia]

Chicken Rustler, I partially agree with you. Bees aren't the only pollinators out there, plus, people are worried about honey bees it seems, not the rest of them. But you also must consider hover flies, drone flies, tachina flies - All able bodied pollinators.

But, trust me, I know who pollinates what around the greenhouse. The bumble bees come in, go around a few beans, squash, maybe some melons, then they fly right on up to the top corner of the greenhouse, try their hardest to somehow escape up there, then die. Few bother pollinating the tomatoes and peppers. I have plenty hover flies who've made the greenhouse their territory, but few actually go around eating and pollinating, as most are males just waiting for a female to enter their territory which they hover over most of the day, then rest in the end on a wooden support beam.

If they pollinated more than what I see, I'd have more watermelons and melons around. I get some female flowers that slip my sight a lot, and are done flowering by the time I reach them. They don't get pollinated, because not one have I seen actually grow to an actual developing melon yet.



DIY Seattle - Yep. Bananas too - Since the common Chiquita (grand nain) bananas we eat are actually hybridized versions of wild seeded bananas, they cannot produce viable seeds, and not everyone uses the pups they shoot, so most bananas are grown from propagated tissue cultures in a lab.


Thankfully mine were grown the natural way through pups from a mother plant. And I'll continue offering other people with the ability to grow bananas to have some of my naturally born and raised "pups." I've got three from my double right now, tiny babies but growing FAST, who will be separated in several months, two will be sold or traded.

 

[RustyHen]

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I think that stuff gets in your hair

and then you carry the smell around with you--yuck
I had to deal with the same situation but husdand gone on trip to get more of our stuff to move. all I had was a pellet gun all that would do was make the situation worse. so I threw a dark green tarp over the trap and by the end of the day he was kaput... the heat got him.
It was a little mean but it had just bit the heads off of 8 of my chicks the night before.

 

[RustyHen]

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Thank you for the pics SadieSue- I like the last one also- it gives me and idea for an extension to ours, we have a shed roof type. and I was wondering how I could add on to it.

 

[PitterPatterPalace]

Illia, so nice to see you around here again. I did sure figure you'd be busy with your plants. Since we moved, we have no garden this year. *sigh* Maybe next year.

CL, do a tomato juice rinse. That should help get the smell out much faster than 10 showers...

 

[Illia]

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Ditto.



Yep, I poke in here now and then today, been waiting for someone to pick up our last goat and again I'm having to pass the opportunity down to yet another person. Good thing I've got lots of people on my list. After that, I've got someone from Seattle coming down to pick up some Araucana hens and some Marans hens. So, basically, I'm just sitting around and waiting for things today.



I just realized with excitement today though - I've got 4 melon varieties with female flowers now. FINALLY! I've been waiting on the "normal" melons to give me some females. Looks like I'll be enjoying a "Sakata's Sweet" melon pretty soon, the rest later on. (Sakata's Sweet are an asian melon in which you can eat the rind, too)

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Appointment went well this morning...I'm the same weight that I was at my last appointment, 3 weeks ago.

I think cutting carbs and all refined sugars has helped. Got to peak the baby--saw the cord, her feet but she was hiding her face. She's still measuring ahead but the fluid levels in there are great. I'm measuring 1cm ahead as far as my fundus goes. Which is such a funny word. Why don't they just just call it external uterine measurement?

Anyway, I'm heading outside to meet the farrier and hold four horses for him.

DH said he'd be back from fishing by now to help but apparently, he was wrong.

VF--I got your message...I'll get back to you tonight...

 

[Kaneke]

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I raise my snow peas inside of what is sold as "tomato cages" -- so it keeps them off the ground; they twine to each other as well as the wire of the cages, and if the cage is set properly in the ground, they can't easily slump over

if they get taller than that, I use spare fallen branches to make tipis overhead