Catmint Lovers

Right beyond our solarium, we planted catmint or Nepeta and enjoy the show of pollinators all day long. One morning though I was especially surprised to see goldfinch. First a pair arrived one morning, then it seemed as if they passed the word and the next few days several more birds arrived, perching on the stalks, swaying with the breeze and nibbling on the flower’s tiny black seeds. Here are some websites to learn more about goldfinch and catmint.

http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/rhgiles/speciesssm/goldfin.htm

http://www.daytonnursery.com/encyclopedia/perennials/nepeta.htm

How Sweet It Is!

It has been awhile since I shared some bee adventures. Starting in early April we observed our strong hive working hard and creating some queen cells. We were concerned with swarming and kept an eye on things. The queen was laying well and the hive was booming. Near the end of April, we decided instead of splitting the hive we would add some honey supers as we noticed they were making honey in the brood chambers. On May 22^nd we harvested over 50 lbs of honey. We used a fume board and bee quick spray and it worked like a charm pushing the bees below. The honey is light and sweet. We have the honey supers back on and will extract probably another 40-50 lbs in about 2 weeks, after the nectar flow comes to an end.

Regarding the photo, the jar to the left is our honey from last year, which we extracted in mid July.