Yesterday I encounter the man that harvests the honey my children eat on their daily oatmeal .
His name is Judson , a rare name which also materialize to be the name of my belated grandfather , Judson Greene .
Last calendar week Sam Singleton from Scrubland Farmz brought me two bee colony in nuc boxes , which we set up in the back pastureland .
Those little boxwood are n’t big enough to keep the bees in long - full term . In fact , Sam suppose we should expand the colony on the right hand in the white box within a week .
I ordered a Langstroth beehive for them a week ago but still have not get it in the mail . Since I was also interested in some substitute beekeeping methods , I build up a Langstroth Long beehive with my son CJ this last workweek so as to house the bees , assuming I ’d be able-bodied to slip a few form from the incoming Langstroth box .
Yet the delay in shipping was take in me nervous , so I settle to call the number on the jarful of honey sitting on the counter and ask Mr. Carden if he could spare a few frames . I ’ve been buying this honey from a local outlet for the last couple of years since we moved here . Now I decided it was a good time to meet the apiarist !
To my delight , he invited out not only to come “ borrow ” a few frames to put in our new hive box , but to also visit with him and see his apiary . I took two of my sons and we headed out past Atmore .
His home was gentle enough to spot . A sign out front said “ Bees at Work ! No Spray Zone !
When we catch there , we were greet by he and his wife and invited to sit down on the porch .
We talked for a while about how he got into beekeeping ( 65 years ago as a boy he was given a box of bees after a beekeeping neighbor was force to give them up because they were stinging the peeress next door as she hung up her washing ) and how he project out the proper screening sizing for the bottom of his box which would let beehive beetles and mites fall to the ground while keeping bee safely in ( 6 holes per in , seldom available and he has to custom - order it from a place calledMcNichols in Atlanta ) .
Then we belong out to see a box with a few of his different frame of reference experiments .
Judson keep 9 frames in a ten - frame of reference corner , and 7 inning inside an 8 - skeleton boxful . He uses Langstroth systema skeletale , but has redesigned the boxes to be deeper than stock so he can put screening and insect trap in the bottom of each one .
“ Otherwise the beehive beetle will displume up your nettle rash , ” he separate me .
Here is one of his boxes with a time slot and tray in the bottom :
Note the screening above the tray . Beetles and speck fall through into the tray beneath , which is just a cheap baking pan from the Dollar General .
The livid pulverization is mason ’s lime , which he sift onto the trays .
He also tried diatomaceous solid ground but say me the lime has worked better for him .
He also used vegetable oil in some of his hives , which was quite effective in kill pestis .
“ The job with the rock oil , though , ” he said , “ is that the hive has to be perfectly tied so the oil colour persist in the tray properly . ”
In his backyard is an array of brilliantly painted bee boxes .
“ It ’s all overgrown , ” he told us . “ It ’s not really fit for showing . ”
I thought it looked beautiful . The bee were everywhere , make full the air with the throb of busy wings .
“ You do it why they ’re all different colours ? ” Judson asked . “ It ’s because I get paint half - off at Lowes when they mix the wrong colour . I ’m chintzy ! ”
“ Why do you put the metal roofs on them ? ” I asked .
“ get ta keep the rain off , ” Judson said . “ If pelting get into the hive it ’ll chill the brood – you ’ll see dead baby bee being take out after a storm sometimes if you do n’t keep the weather condition off . ”
“ Let me show you a conjuration the bee provision companies do n’t need you to fuck . You see this frame here ? ”
“ If you cut a sheet of wax foundation into strips , you’re able to just mount one strip of it and the bees will build down from there . I just put together it in and course some wax down the rut and the bees build mighty on it . Here ’s one they progress out on . ”
“ They influence their path down from the top and build off that first starter piece and you do n’t have to purchase all that foundation . I also experimented with not take any frame at all , just a top bar that slant down in a ridgepole . I paint a little wax on the bottom and the bees build from there . ”
“ You got ta be careful , though , because that cockscomb will break off easily on a strong twenty-four hours if you turn it the wrong way . ”
We walked around the edge of his yard and he betoken out a few of his best-loved ambrosia - bearing plants .
“ This privet hedge is big food for the bee . I love overgrown hedgerow . They ’ll make honey from this for a month , and that honey is so vindicated you may read through it . ”
“ Another tree everyone hates is the popcorn Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . But I have sex ’em . The bees make a with child honey from those bloom , and they bloom the entire month after the privet are done , making a sinister love . ”
“ It seems like all the invasive plants people hate are often the ones the bee love . You do n’t want to keep bees in a space that ’s all clean and tidy and sodding – they do n’t have enough to eat , and mass are probably spraying toxicant . Bees like popcorn trees and overgrown hedges and they have it off kudzu – they ’ll apply all the stuff we endeavor to kill ! ”
Judson sent me home with some extra frames for my own beehive , as well as a bit of foundation and some wax to get the bees started .
When I arrived at base , I found two creative person at work on my Langstroth Long hive . My daughter Daisy on the right , and local artist admirer Kelsey Baker on the leftfield .
Kelsey went all - out with her design for this hive . It ’s the prettiest bee house I ’ve ever check .
I ’ll make trusted to film the entire hive in a future video recording .
I trust the bee value art !
Today we ’ll be channelize our frame from the white nuc box into this new luxury beehive with lots more space for baby bees and dear . I ’ll be applying what I learned from Judson as well as revel the beauty of the pretty beehive in Alabama .
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