Lookin' good in there, and some great news for our farm

(If you're bee-phobic, whiz past the pics to the text at the end for the farm news!)

My friend and mentor Pierre came over today to go through my hives with me. I've been worrying about swarming, because three of the four hives are just busting with bees.

In this pic, you an see pollen (yellow stuffed in cells in the bottom left section), capped brood (top left, cells coverd in orangey-brown) and capped drone brood (bottom right corner, cells that stick out a bit like a bullet, capped in orangey-brown.) The drones are larger than the worker bees, so they stick out of the cells as the larvae grow! Some of the cells have nectar, too (shiny liquid.)

And here are girls with lots and lots of beautiful pollen!

Can you spot the queen? She has a yellow dot on her thorax and she's pretty obvious in this one! (Hint: she's bigger than the other bees although it doesn't especially show in this photo.)

 And here is what a beekeeper wants to see in her hive: a beautiful frame of tightly-packed, capped brood, ringed by pollen, and at the far edges, capped honey!

My hives have great queens who lay lots of eggs.

Here's another shot of that beautiful, multi-coloured pollen:

We have a lot of trees around here, and that's where most of the pollen is coming from right now. Pierre has fewer trees around him, and so is seeing less pollen in his hives right now.

Things are so nuts that we put honey supers on three of the four hives today! (The fourth hive is fine but not overflowing with bees.) This is a first for me, adding honey supers in early May. I don't usually put them on until June. We are giving the girls more space in hopes that they won't swarm (that's when they girls make a second queen and half the hive leaves!) But it's so great to have such happy, healthy bees in spring. I am thrilled they all survived the winter.

And here's the good farm news! A native grass project on our land has been funded and is going ahead! Ducks Unlimited and our local conservation authority are involved. A solar farm has to fund a Bobolink and Meadowlark habitat restoration project in exchange for their other land use. They are going to plant 21 acres of our land in native grasses and some wildflowers, to provide habitat for these birds. 

The Bobolink is a threatened species in Ontario. They like to nest in hayfields, but their nest, eggs and nestlings are often destroyed if hay is cut before the babies have fully fledged. Our 21 acres will give these birds (and meadowlarks) a safe place to reproduce.
Back in  2008, I found a Horned Lark nest in our fields. Luckily the babies all fledged before the field was planted for the season. Check out the cute photos here.

This is a 20-year project, which is fine with us. We will be paid rent on the land for the first three years. The planting and maintenance will be paid for by the solar company and administered by Ducks Unlimited and the conservation authority. There will be bird counts every year, and every third year, a prescribed burn, which should be VERY exciting! 

The fellow from Ducks Unlimited that we have been working with told us that the fields will look a bit crappy this year, better next year, and spectacular the third year. He sent me a list of some of the seeds he's putting in the planting mix:

Grasses

Canada Wild Rye

Virginia Wild Rye

Little Bluestem

Switchgrass

Sand Dropseed

Bluestem Broomsedge

Riverbank Wild Rye (depends on location)

Creeping Red Fescue (depending on site)

Big Bluestem (sparingly)

Forbs

Black-eyed Susan

Bush clover

Showy tick trefoil

milkweeds (spcecies depends on location)

Penstemon digitalis (smooth beardtongue)

grey goldenrod

aster species (depends on location)

false sunflower

lanceleaf coreopsis

wild senna

fox sedge

boneset

blue vervain

woolgrass

He put in some milkweeds because he knows I love them. This will also be GREAT for my bees and other pollinators! When I split my hives this year, I am moving the new hives out to that field. There is a  honey outfit in western Ontario that is experimenting with tallgrass prairie honey. I'll be able to do the same, although this will be more "medium grass" than tall! 

We're so excited that this project is going ahead. We are hoping to get a two-acre duck pairing pond put in our back pasture soon too. Stay tuned for updates.

Happy weekend!