The options are many: Langstroth, Warre, Top Bar, Long Hives. The impassioned reasoning to favor one or the other is endless. For someone trying to get started it has to be overwhelming. I am going to make some very specific recommendations for your first hive and give you the reasoning for each part of it. What works (or lately…
You read Part I, you have your bin, now what? Time to assemble! What you need to get started that was not in the box with your bin. Newspaper for shredding and lining the bin. Eggshells A cup of finished compost or worm castings. Water A big tub or bucket to mix things in. Two cups of kitchen…
Double Digging, Intensive Gardening, French Bio-intensive, whatever current buzzword is trotted out to sell the latest gardening book. The most sacred of sacred cows. And a complete waste of your time and effort. Compost Myth-busting returns! Digging and especially Double Digging (turning the soil completely over) is a backbreaking waste of time. Digging destroys the delicate soil structure which…
The continuing process for changing over to foundationless hives is very simple. Keep adding new frames to the center of the bottom box two at a time. When you add a new pair, move a pair of old contaminated foundation based frames up to the second box. Each time, you should place the new pair of foundationless empty…
What is natural comb? What is foundation? What do you mean by foundationless? It is apparent there is a lot of confusion out there surrounding this. I think this post will make things crystal clear! Most chemicaly managed hives are full of nasty old comb drawn over foundation by a hive of bees in the late…
I started out beekeeping on my own just the way I learned growing up. With foundation. I had heard the old saws: 1) “It takes twenty pounds of honey to make a pound of wax.” 2) “You can’t extract if you don’t have foundation”. 3) “You will end up with a hive full of drones”….
From Gerald in Cullowhee, NC So–I am now an organic beekeeper. But am cheating a bit–we have no other bees that we know of within a couple miles so no chance of catching something from other hives. Hi Gerald, Glad to hear you are interested in moving to a more beneficial environment for you bees. Regarding the distance…
There was a plea for help from our friend Bryan, over at askbryan.com: Dirt whisperer I am not. Compost pile thawed. It’s a big heaping stinking pile of rotten leaves at the bottom. Not compost at all. I need some cover and food for my garlic, I think. Thought I could use my compost, but…
I could barely sleep last night because of this. Manifesto alert, proceed at your own risk. Everything we post about here on Backyard Ecosystem. Everything underlying the movement toward greening our cites over the last several decades. The very title of the excellent book written by Erik and Kelly over at the blog formerly known as Homegrown…
Several years ago we acquired a shop-light with OTT fluorescent tubes to use for seed sprouting and growing seedlings. OTT lights were specifically developed to provide a more natural light spectrum and seemed like a good idea for seedlings. The fixture was incidentally installed next to the computer and was oftentimes my light source when I sat at the computer. I quickly realized sitting at…
Backyard Ecosystem began as an expression of my determination to make a difference in our own backyard. Literally and metaphorically making a difference at the micro level of my yard and to operate at macro level of treating the entire planet as something I am an integral part of and whose destiny is shaped everyday by what I do in my corner of the world.
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