Catching a Bee Swarm - Part 1

Swarming is an instinctive part of the annual life cycle of the honeybee. This swarm landed on a limb nearby our apple orchard. After they land, scout bees are sent out to find a permanent home. When they return, they will do a dance that indicates the direction of the new home so if you want free bees you need to catch them soon.

Catching a Bee Swarm - Part 2

Mark from Beech Mountain Beekeeping is using a bee brush to brush the bees on the frame. Then the frame is placed in the swarm box. Once bees start going into the box, the rest will follow like ants marching to the ant hill.

Catching a Bee Swarm - Part 3

Ready to capture the swarm, a cloth was laid out below the swarm in front of the swarm box. The majority of the bees have been shaken on to the cloth and have begun entering the hive.

Mutinus caninus - a strange, stinky mushroom

This mushroom was found growing in the apple orchard near the blueberry bushes. I was curious to identify the mushroom and after some research found that this mushroom is Mutinus caninus, commonly known as the dog stinkhorn. It is a small thin, phallus-shaped woodland fungus, with a dark tip. The mushroom is about the size of your pinky in length and diameter but some text says they can get several times that size. This mushroom grows from a white egg and is covered by a decaying slime. The edibility of the mushroom is listed as “of no interest” but who would want to eat it. The slime attracts flies as you can see on the photo. The flies pick up the mushroom’s spores and deposit them elsewhere to help spread this mushroom around. A very strange, stinky critter indeed. 

Buckwheat for Bees

Being a new beekeeper and wanting to have plants for the bees to forage, buckwheat seems to be a good nectar source for honey beekeepers to provide for bees. I bought two packages of buckwheat seed as a lark

at Beech Mountain Beekeeping and sowed the seed randomly in the field near the beehive.  
Typically the seeds should germinate and emerge within three to four days. Plants grow rapidly, producing small heart-shaped leaves with slender, hollow stems. Surprisingly the flowers began to appear about three weeks after planting. 
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a broadleaf plant native to northern Asia. The seeds are brown in color, roughly the size of a soybean, irregularly shaped, with four triangular surfaces. At the peak of flowering, the buckwheat plant has striking white petals. After a flower is pollinated, a full-sized seed will form within 10 days. Seeds appear and mature earlier on the lower stem, with seed development continuing up the stem as the plant matures.  The bees are very happy!