What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

How many hives did you have? What kind of bees?

We just have the one, and I'm thinking we might get another one next spring. So far, I'm really liking the Italian bees that we bought.

My bee guy said people ask him, "How can you tell the Italian bees from other bees?"

He said, "The Italians say, 'Buzzah buzzah buzzah.'"

Six hives.
2 Italian, 2 russian, 2 carniolian
lost them at different times to different things
We had one standard hive and the rest were top bar

Mites, extreme cold, wax moth, robbing and flight, early warm up and no available food (they came out in march and we don't get pollen until the end of april, sugar and pollen patties weren't enough - the extreme cold winter reduced their stores

Finally, we just said enough.
Upside, we got our neighbor hooked on bees, he now has 20 hives. (yes, the allergic guy)

 

[Sally PB]

I'm sorry you lost them.

Did you prefer the top bar hive set up, since you had 5 of that style? What did you like about it?

I'm finding bees fascinating. About a week ago, I went out to the hive, put my ear down by the opening, and I could hear a faint hummmmm. Hopefully healthy bees in their cluster.

 

[WthrLady]

I preferred them. THey were great down south, but they were too delicate for the cold of the prairielands.
I liked them as there was no heavy lifting of supers, it was all laid out in the open when you lifted off the lid.

 

[gtaus]

Wife puts cinnamon, sugar, a little vanilla, and a pinch of salt on roasted seeds

That sounds good. Thanks.

 

[gtaus]

It depends on the store. 15 years ago I worked at walmart and that specific walmart sent produce, meat, and dairy to a pig farm.

I think each store figures out its own system according to the local laws/ economy/ ect.

I like to hear that. I saw a YouTube video of a guy who only feeds his chickens the waste food from local restaurants. He had trucks dropping off loads of waste food and he worked it up into giant rows for composting with his tractor. Chickens are amazing in all the types of food they can eat.

The closest large scale commercial composting place is a good 80 miles from my town. I have never been there, but I was told they mainly compost yard waste. Our local landfill does the same with yard waste that gets dumped out there, but they will not sell any of the compost they make. They use it to cover all the other garbage they bury at their site.

 

[1cock2hens]

I like to hear that. I saw a YouTube video of a guy who only feeds his chickens the waste food from local restaurants. He had trucks dropping off loads of waste food and he worked it up into giant rows for composting with his tractor. Chickens are amazing in all the types of food they can eat.

The closest large scale commercial composting place is a good 80 miles from my town. I have never been there, but I was told they mainly compost yard waste. Our local landfill does the same with yard waste that gets dumped out there, but they will not sell any of the compost they make. They use it to cover all the other garbage they bury at their site.

Idk how it slipped my mind but I actually get food for my pigs from a church that gets it from a local charity that gets it from walmart and a few other places. They get so much given to them that they can't use it all in time and it goes bad/molds but is still perfectly good for my pigs so they drop off bread and veggies 2-3 times a week.

 

[gtaus]

Australia is selling Imperfect Perfect veg & fruit in a campaign to stop so much wasted food. Not that it ever truly wasted as farmers would get it cheap for their livestock and a lot of it going into commercial juices. People were conned into perfection eating, something my grandparents always seeing was children shying away from a bruised apple.

I don't see any blemished food at our local big box stores. So, I assume it gets filtered out before any hits the floor. Being an amateur gardener, I know that not all food is blemish free. But it is still good to eat. Good for Australia for their campaign to reduce food waste.

What food we do not eat from our gardens gets tossed into the chicken bucket. All that and kitchen scraps and leftovers as well. Almost nothing (food based) gets tossed into the trash since we got a backyard flock of chickens.

 

[gtaus]

Suppose we're too cheap... We go ahead and eat food despite some freezer burn (major freezer burn we'll toss or cut away). Food is too expensive to throw away.

Well, I agree with you. Somehow, that half pack of opened meatballs got shoved into the back of the freezer and forgotten. Dear Wife had already bought a new pack of meatballs, so when she found the older pack and it had freezer burn, she tossed the old meatballs into the chicken bucket.

Dear Wife and I have an agreement that any food that gets tossed into the chicken bucket is guilt free. I probably would have cooked up the slightly freezer burned meatballs, but, again, if it ends up in the chicken bucket then I don't say anything.

We are also in a financial position now that lets us toss questionable food to the chickens. There was a time earlier in my life where that would never happen. Although those meatballs are expensive chicken feed, at least it was not tossed into the garbage and hauled out to the dump.

 

[gtaus]

Idk how it slipped my mind but I actually get food for my pigs from a church that gets it from a local charity that gets it from walmart and a few other places. They get so much given to them that they can't use it all in time and it goes bad/molds but is still perfectly good for my pigs so they drop off bread and veggies 2-3 times a week.

If I had more than just 10 chickens, I would love to get into an arrangement like that. And they even bring it to you and drop it off! That's a sweet deal.

The other thing is that I live outside of town. I only go into town maybe once a week in the non-snow months, and maybe only twice a month during the winter. So, it would be difficult for me to set up an arrangement to pick up small amounts of food that infrequently.

 

[1cock2hens]

If I had more than just 10 chickens, I would love to get into an arrangement like that. And they even bring it to you and drop it off! That's a sweet deal.

The other thing is that I live outside of town. I only go into town maybe once a week in the non-snow months, and maybe only twice a month during the winter. So, it would be difficult for me to set up an arrangement to pick up small amounts of food that infrequently.

I definitely lucked out. Ive known the church leader for years and i just happen to live between him and the charity he pics the food up from. I live 45 minutes from the closest store and definitely couldn't make that run regularly. It kinda gets overwhelming sometimes, I live so far out there is no trash service so I have to make it out every week or 2 to drop plastic trash off. Another plus side I get tons and tons of cardboard to compost.

Yesterday he dropped off 8 cases of french bread/ garlic bread/croutons and 3 cases of greens, expired salads, sweet potatoes etc. We are blessed and these pigs are fat and happy.