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Today I planted a 4x4 box of jalapenos, habaneros, cayenne, and hot banana peppers. These will mostly go into making hot pepper jelly this fall when we harvest them. I also planted another 4x4 box across the garden with red and yellow peppers. The red ones I planted were those big, long red...

A week ago we had two bee swarms that Teresa managed to capture and we added our seventh and eighth hives. Today I had just sat down on my garden stool after planting a box of peppers. As I was taking a long swig of water something caught my eye down the tree line above one of the hives. A...

That's just it though. We've had a very cool spring with a good deal of rain. Not heavy rain but regular and about 50% of the days have been cloudy or partially cloudy. Temps haven't been out of the 70's at all. We had a few days a couple of weeks ago where the temps were in the higher 70's...

Absolutely incredible! Thanks for sharing!

A fully populated colony in mid-spring like right now until early summer probably has about 80,000 bees in it. Many of those are foragers but quite a number of them are not of the age yet to be a forager. These work the hive. They guard it, clean it, tend the queen, make wax, make honey, etc...

Carol, see my response above about going to the local beekeeping association meetings. Lots of fun and great info. And good food too.

I only know what Teresa tells me. She's pretty knowledgeable for a novice. We belong to a beekeeping association run by the local ag extension office and we have monthly meetings and get to learn new stuff all the time. I go because the members bring some pretty good food to each meeting...

Really, maybe only 5 or 6 times in the past three years since we've been doing beekeeping. I've only been stung twice and both times I was cutting grass on my mower and got too close to the hives. We did have one really nasty colony we'd caught that came from somewhere else. Keep in mind that...

I think the Africanized bees have pretty much played out as they have moved into the U.S., at least that's what I've been told by the local beekeepers.

I'm not sure about that. I got it from SouthernStates, our local co-op here in Statesville. They probably got it from Bonnie's, I just don't remember. But I guess Chinese cabbage is a bust this year. Hopefully my Dutch cabbage will head up before the bugs and worms get here so I can make...

No, I've got a bunch of grand kids that would take exception if I did that to their swing set. We do have chickens but they're off to the left of that pic in an old carport a friend gave me a few years ago. I build the coop and put it inside and then enclosed it with 2x4 wire fabric and...

Yes. The swarm will find a hollow tree or even an abandoned barn or building to set up housekeeping in. I remember when I was a little boy my PawPaw and I would go down to the creek and if he saw a bee he'd watch which way it headed when it took off. It would be taking water back to the hive...

We had seven hives at the end of last fall when Teresa last went in an inspected them sometimes after Thanksgiving. We lost one during the winter sometimes. That happens because sometimes they cluster up around the queen and they'll eat all the honey stores they have in the hive body but won't...

I'm with you, but you've got to know you can't plant it this year and enjoy it too. From my understanding and watching what Teresa has done for the past three or four years with her box that the first year is to get the crowns in the ground and let them fern out and not take any. The second...

I hate the idea of giving all this to the chickens. What about deflowering them? Will that retard the bolting? But your comment about planting in the fall struck me because I think when I've planted it in the fall I've had great luck with it. But we've had a very cool to mild spring so far...

Thanks Ninny. When it's really fresh like this it is so tender and delicious. When I come in from working in the garden Teresa asks me if I'd like her to fix me a plate of dinner she's made. If I say no, she runs out to the garden to check her asparagus and runs back in and starts wailing on...

Since I was out taking pics of the Chinese Cabbage I was asking about I took a bunch of other pics so now you have to sit and look at 'em... These are my Red Kennebeck taters on the left, Yukon Gold and fingerling taters on the right, cabbage, collards, and romaine behind them. 'Maters...

Hey, does anyone have any idea why my Chinese cabbage is flowering? The plants are very healthy and have been looking great since I put them in the ground but in the past few days they have been putting on little yellow flowers. They've not started to head up yet. What gives? Should I pinch...

First off, it was great to hear the E.U. news concerning certain pesticides. Hopefully it will translate to action here by our Do-Nothing politicians in D.C. But what I'm actually reporting is that we have had three swarms in the past two weeks and we apparently lost one of them. But my...

Lisa, You may have good luck with acid loving plants. I understand that blueberries love pine mulch and even being in pine soil. We mulch ours each year with pine needles and they're very healthy and productive. Some of the other garden plants like tomatoes might like it there too. Just a...