Showing posts with label national wildlife federation certified wildlife habitat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national wildlife federation certified wildlife habitat. Show all posts
Friday, July 1, 2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Yard and Garden Views
Love this view in the yard. Repurposed green door with dragonfly... Lots of stuff blooming. Dogs loving life.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Happy Father's Day
Drove to Dayton and visited with my dad in the morning and then Elisha and Brooks came over in the afternoon. Andrew talked to his dad on the phone. A good day!
Monday, May 2, 2016
Black Throated Green Warbler
Black-throated green warbler in our yard. All the time that Andrew has spent on NWF certified wildlife habitat is paying off.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
The Buzz
When I kept bees in the 90's the last brood that I raised was rather nasty and stung me 12 times in one outing. (They had a disease called foul brood and I burned the hive shortly thereafter as recommended by the Ohio Agricultural extension office). I bought a bottle of Benadryl gel and liberally spread it over my wounds.
Fast forward to last year. I find this cute little bee hive on line and decide to raise bees again because pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide. After an episode in which the hive is stolen by thieves from our porch after being delivered and we subsequently recover it with the help of the Westerville Police I get Carnolian bees (native to Serbia) from an apiary out of Georgia. We enjoy a lovely summer with them pollinating all the blooms in our yard and nary a sting. I open and close bee hive with no smoker and often times without any gear or at least bare handed. Shame on me. For some unknown reason (probably death of the queen) the hive departs and leaves me with an empty bee box at the end of September.
After a nightmarish year of family medical crisis and death I debate whether or not to refill the hive. Leaning toward not I remind myself that pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide and tell myself to suck it up and get moving. I order lovely Carnolian bees from the same apiary that we got such wonderful bees from last year. I'm given the choice of April 9, 16, 23rd for delivery. I choose April 9th as on the outside chance that the lovely bees might sting me I don't want to be covered in welts as we have an event to attend the last weekend in April. My first sign should have been that it snowed and was 24 degrees on bee pick up day....in April My second sign should have been that I accidently released the queen by taking the plug out of the wrong end of her cage when I installed the hive. According to best practices I should have let the bees release her by eating the plug made of candy out of the other end of her cage although some internet sources state that this isn't really a huge make it or break it mistake. On day two after installation I open the hive to check the food supply and find it depleted with more cold weather on the way. It rained all day Monday and Tuesday night we had a work thing that I had to attend. I was left with no choice so I put on my head gear and gloves at lunch time yesterday and headed out to open the hive. Half way across the yard I say to myself - crap I should have put rubber bands around my ankles to keep a bee from flying up my pant leg, which has never happened previously, though having the bands is the usual protection protocol. But I'm in a hurry and I say to myself - I don't have time this will only take a minute. I open the hive and all the bees had swarmed to the top of the hive, probably for warmth, and onto the food dish that I had placed in the empty top compartment. I take out the food dish put frames into empty compartment, close up the hive and congratulate myself on a job well done. I walk back toward the house and onto the deck. When I step up onto the deck the bee that had flown up my left pant leg stings me with a vengeance. I drop my pants right there in the yard and scrap off the stinger. I'm now standing in the middle of the backyard in my underwear and the dogs are yapping like mad men at the back door. Crap #@! I say to myself. But I didn't think much more about it until last night when I was in my bathrobe and getting ready to take a shower and Andrew says to me - what in the hell did you do to your leg? I explain. Then he says- I was going to tell you that I didn't think the bees that we got this year were as friendly as the ones we had last year. This morning I get up and I can hardly bend my knee and my legs itches like the devil. I say don't we have some Benadryl around here. He rummages through the linen closet and produces a bottle of gel...with an expiration date of 16 years ago when I was last stung. I made a trip to Walgreens at lunch time for some new Benadryl....Needless to say I will be in full gear at all times this year. My own fault; can't blame it on the bees.
Fast forward to last year. I find this cute little bee hive on line and decide to raise bees again because pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide. After an episode in which the hive is stolen by thieves from our porch after being delivered and we subsequently recover it with the help of the Westerville Police I get Carnolian bees (native to Serbia) from an apiary out of Georgia. We enjoy a lovely summer with them pollinating all the blooms in our yard and nary a sting. I open and close bee hive with no smoker and often times without any gear or at least bare handed. Shame on me. For some unknown reason (probably death of the queen) the hive departs and leaves me with an empty bee box at the end of September.
After a nightmarish year of family medical crisis and death I debate whether or not to refill the hive. Leaning toward not I remind myself that pollinators in general are in a crisis state worldwide and tell myself to suck it up and get moving. I order lovely Carnolian bees from the same apiary that we got such wonderful bees from last year. I'm given the choice of April 9, 16, 23rd for delivery. I choose April 9th as on the outside chance that the lovely bees might sting me I don't want to be covered in welts as we have an event to attend the last weekend in April. My first sign should have been that it snowed and was 24 degrees on bee pick up day....in April My second sign should have been that I accidently released the queen by taking the plug out of the wrong end of her cage when I installed the hive. According to best practices I should have let the bees release her by eating the plug made of candy out of the other end of her cage although some internet sources state that this isn't really a huge make it or break it mistake. On day two after installation I open the hive to check the food supply and find it depleted with more cold weather on the way. It rained all day Monday and Tuesday night we had a work thing that I had to attend. I was left with no choice so I put on my head gear and gloves at lunch time yesterday and headed out to open the hive. Half way across the yard I say to myself - crap I should have put rubber bands around my ankles to keep a bee from flying up my pant leg, which has never happened previously, though having the bands is the usual protection protocol. But I'm in a hurry and I say to myself - I don't have time this will only take a minute. I open the hive and all the bees had swarmed to the top of the hive, probably for warmth, and onto the food dish that I had placed in the empty top compartment. I take out the food dish put frames into empty compartment, close up the hive and congratulate myself on a job well done. I walk back toward the house and onto the deck. When I step up onto the deck the bee that had flown up my left pant leg stings me with a vengeance. I drop my pants right there in the yard and scrap off the stinger. I'm now standing in the middle of the backyard in my underwear and the dogs are yapping like mad men at the back door. Crap #@! I say to myself. But I didn't think much more about it until last night when I was in my bathrobe and getting ready to take a shower and Andrew says to me - what in the hell did you do to your leg? I explain. Then he says- I was going to tell you that I didn't think the bees that we got this year were as friendly as the ones we had last year. This morning I get up and I can hardly bend my knee and my legs itches like the devil. I say don't we have some Benadryl around here. He rummages through the linen closet and produces a bottle of gel...with an expiration date of 16 years ago when I was last stung. I made a trip to Walgreens at lunch time for some new Benadryl....Needless to say I will be in full gear at all times this year. My own fault; can't blame it on the bees.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Flora and Fauna
Just a couple more things from the yard that are new this year. Our mouse friend is living in one of the garage window wells and it was put back (much to its relief) after the photo session.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Bee Hive Maintanence
Bees are doing well. Just checking up on them today. Snagged a small taste of honey while I was at it.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Fun with the Rabbits
Never a shortage of entertainment around here...Nolan put himself in the pen with the buns...
Friday, June 12, 2015
Moths Have Hatched!
Some of our moths hatched last night around dusk- a male and a female cecropia and a male polyphemus. The cecropia cocoons were given to us by a friend and the polyphemus cocoon was collected from our magnolia bush last fall. The males flew off into the sunset but the female cecropia spent the night in our apple tree and this morning we found that she had a mate. We were hoping this would be the case and were excited to find her (along with her mate) still there. While we were taking photos a dragonfly came by and landed on my pants!
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Yard and Garden
Andrew made me some flower boxes for the shed windows out of reclaimed wood (found floating in Lake Huron a couple summers ago). We've also got a pair of nesting cardinals. Overall the yard is stunning and as a gift to Andrew I had it officially certified as a National Wildlife Certified Habitat An usual colored Luna moth showed up one evening and everything else is just amazing
.
.
Iris
Lilac Haven
Prairie Garden (early spring)
Brood comb making in progress
Colombine
Green Dragon
Virginia bluebells
Wild Indigo
Sunset
Side garden
Heirloom poppies
Yellow bud
Rhododendron
Red bud
Wild ginger
Ohio buckeye
f
Luna moth
Lily of the Valley-original rootstock from my grandma.
Daisy's magnolia
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