Pots to start plants for bees

My roommate has a 3d printer. I started making starter pots for the seeds I have ordered. So far I am going to be planting Anise Hyssop ( Agastache foeniculum ) and Bee Balm ( Monarda fistulosa ) . These two plants are in the Lamiaceae family of plants. This family of plants include mint, cooking spices like sage, basil and thyme .

Trip to Pigeon Mountain Trading Company

Pigeon Mountain Trading Company is a beekeeping supply company. It is located in LaFayette , GA. This was my first visit to a beekeeping supply business and I was very curious as to what they carried. I found it to be a bit far form Marietta, Ga, where I live. But was told people come from all over Georgia and surrounding states to buy their nucs, hives and package bees. The staff is very friendly and help me learn a few things about bee clothing. Since I've never owned a hive, they told me prices for the different ways to get bees to start a hive. They had a good selection of books on beekeeping for beginners along with posters to help teach new beekeepers.

Even with this being the off season for beekeeping, they had a full selection of hive parts, bee suits and tools that a beekeeper would need. The staff is well informed about beekeeping and the local information on what is going on with the bees in the area. I would highly recommend you check them out if you  are interested in beekeeping. Their website is at www.pigeonmountaintrading.com . The website is very well done and easy to use.

While I was there I tried on a beekeepers jacket to find my size.

More on the Plight of the Honey Bee

I recently found a video on Youtube that gives a good historical pitcher of the plight of the honey bee. The film starts out about the time the first cases of Colony Collapse Disorder ( CCD ) started.

The video is entitled " Vanishing of the Bees "  It is well written and follows a few beekeepers who try to find out what is going on with the bees and the hives they own. This story coves the happenings to bees in Europe , the US and other parts of the world. It is my fear if we loss the bees, we maybe on the extinction menu too. Lose of our fruits and vegetables that need bees to pollinate. The lose of the honey bee is only the latest pollinators to disappear. Wild bees and bumblebees are also disappearing and they pollinate plants that honey bees unable to do

The link to the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-JjQH_HUHQ

Last of the Roses

I went for a walk today around my apartment complex. I found a few left over roses and a few buds that are trying to bloom before the first frost of the season. The air has a slight bight as cold air from the North is filtering in from a cold front that left snow in the area around Minnesota. They can keep their snow and for the most part I wish they would keep the cold air.

I prefer Spring and Fall. Comfortable warm days like in the 70's and lows around 60. Here in Georgia we sometimes get snow and ice which makes me wish I lived South of Orlando for the warmer temperatures.

Boycott Starbucks ???

When Starbucks went to the Christmas season cups this year it was red with only the Starbucks logo. It 's a nice simply design that I think looks good. In years past it had stars , snowflakes and christmas trees. Every year the design is different, so this year it is a plain red cup.

Evangelicals and other groups are saying the cup should have something to relate to the christian holiday of christmas. But on the pagan calendar it is Yule. The church changed the holiday to christmas to move pagans away from their customs to the church.

Another holiday is Easter, it was a fertility festival. That is way bunnies and eggs are a part of this holiday. Also it is about rebirth of the land from a long winters sleep. Now the christians use it to celebrate  Christs rising from the dead.

So if you check out the christian holidays with the history of the celebration, you may find pagan underpinnings.

Washington Post on neonicotinoid insecticides

The Washington Post recently posted an article about neonicotinoid pesticides and the possible link to Colony Collapse Disorder ( CCD ). In other parts of the world were this pesticide has been banned for harming bees. Some areas where it has been banned the bees have done some recovery. The neonicotinoid pesticides are a poison the becomes part of the plants structure. So it is in the nectar, pollen and worst of all, in the food we get from these plants that were treated.

From videos I found on Youtube, I have learned that neonicotinoid poisons are nicotine based. The affects the bees nervous system, reduces the reproductivity by almost half. Bees fly to get nectar but can't find their way home. So all you have left in a hive is a queen, a few drones and veryfew bees to care for the hive.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-bee-research-details-harm-from-insecticide/2012/03/29/gIQAZrnGjS_story.html

Greetings

I am starting this blog to give information on the heath of bees and other topics that affect animal and plant life on our planet.

Over the past few years bees have been disappearing from what they are calling Colony Collapse Disorder. As yet they don't know the cause. But if we lose the bees, we lose about 1/3 of our food supply. For without the bees we don't have fruit, nuts and vegetables. Most of these plants have to be cross pollinated. A job that bees do very well.

This bee lose nightmare has already happen in a Southern Sichuan Province in China.* Due to over use of pesticides. The pear farmers now collect the pollen using a toothbrush to get the pollen off the anthers. Dry it for a day or two, then use a duster made from chicken  feathers to tap the flowers with pollen. Bees reach up to 3 million flowers in a day, but the farmer and his workers can only do about 30 trees in a day.



*Silence of the Bees by KPBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKCoKrEV8gg