Mark's tip of the day: Kill those weeds without chemicals!

I once paid a visit to a new beekeeper's hives and noticed that every weed under and around them was "graveyard dead" (as Jerry Clower used to say). I was in awe and wanted to know the secret. When I asked him how he was killing them, he didn't hesitate to say Round Up. While I praised his efforts to keep his yard free of weeds, I gave him some friendly advice and told him to stop using chemicals like that around his bee hives. While Round Up is an herbicide and not a pesticide, it has been shown to be toxic for animals, fish and humans. And it is more than likely toxic to honey bees too. I told him one natural weed killer is to mix one gallon of white vinegar and one large container of salt, then spray it like Round Up. You can also add some dish detergent to the vinegar and salt mix. The good thing, it really works. The bad thing, you have to reapply it frequently.  

Before I got my first colony of bees, I tried everything you could think of to kill a big bed of bamboo behind my house. The previous owners apparently planted it, and what they were thinking, I don't know. The stuff is relentless and you can't kill it. No matter what I've used, nothing has worked. I even read where people have poured concrete over it and the stuff will continue to grow and sprout at the end of the concrete pad. My best bet would be to get a panda but I don't think that is very practical.

Year ago while doing some research on how to eliminate this evil weed, I ran across an article that said of you will apply Morton's water conditioning salt, it will kill tough weeds but not impact the environment like toxic chemicals. So I tried it and sure enough it worked. Let me clarify, it killed the grass and other weeds where it made direct contact, but did little to the bamboo. While that part was a failure, I did learn that the water conditioner salt is a cheap and non toxic method to deal with grass. And it is perfect to put under bee hives since it has no smell and nothing that will hurt the bees if they come in contact with it.

The pellets are about the size of medium gravel. And they are big enough that they won't disappear in one rain event. So as they melt, they leave enough residue kill the grass and will continue to work until they disappear. Once they're gone, simply apply more pellets. I paid a little over $8 for a 40 pound bag, and you can probably get it cheaper if you shop around. But a word of warning - don't put them near flowers or other greenery you want to live. While it doesn't work with bamboo, it does work on other living plants, so be careful where you put it. And if you accidentally get some on plants you do want to live, get it up before it rains or you use a water hose.

Good luck if you try it and let me know how it works for you. Oh by the way, the bamboo is still out of control although I keep it at bay with clippers and the lawnmower. And who knows..one of these days, I may have to get that panda after all!

Paying a visit to a new beekeeper's hives...

On Saturday, I paid a visit to a friend's bee hives.  Keith Mabe started beekeeping this year with his own two colonies.  After taking the basic beekeeper course that was offered through the Rockingham County Beekeeper's Association, he bought his hive set ups and his bee packages and got started right away.  Here you see Keith as he stands next to one of his hives. This one is booming by the way.

Keith was a little concerned because one of his two hives seemed to be running a little slow.  He told me that he didn't see a lot of eggs and spotty capped brood, and thought something may be wrong.  So he asked me if I would come out and take a look and give him my opinion.  Always glad to see another beekeeper's hives, I accepted and met him on Saturday morning.  The hive he was concerned about is on the left.

Based on what he told me, I though he may have a failing queen.  But once we got into the hive, I found a lot of eggs in a tight pattern.  And we also found the queen as she made her way across the frame with all the eggs.  There was also larvae present that was hidden under bees on the frames.  I told Keith that it appears that all is okay with this hive, and that some colonies are faster in building up than others.  My advice was to close the hive up and not disturb them for a week, and to continue to feed them sugar syrup so they can finish drawing the frames.  Even without smoke, the colony was gentle and easy to work with.  

The hive on the right is doing great!  Keith told me that this colony took off as soon as he hived them, and that's apparent by the numbers of bees and the eggs and honey all throughout the hive.  They had so much honey there that I advised Keith to put a shallow super on top and let them fill it with honey, then he could have some for himself and leave some for the bees.  This colony was a tad testy at times, but they had a lot of honey to protect and we didn't smoke them either.  Overall I say that this is a very prolific colony that should do well through the rest of the year and hopefully overwinter well.

Keith has a great location for his bees.  They are near several area gardens and he provides water for them near the hives.  They are in a rural area of the county, not far from the county seat, and the area isn't accessible unless you drive through a parked gate.  So they should be protected from vandals or theft.

My only advice was to keep an eye on them to make sure that he sees eggs and brood, and that we would check them again in a few weeks.  I also advised him to switch to a non-toxic weed killer to spray around and under his hives, and to not use something like Round-Up which the bees can get into take back to the hives.  I use a gallon of vinegar to one full container of table salt.  Once I mix it in a sprayer, I use it liberally around and under my hives.  While you have to apply it more often, it doesn't carry the risks of poisonous chemicals.  You can also use rock salt under your hives to kill weeds and grass.

I think Keith is going to make an excellent beekeeper.  He's very excited about his bee colonies and doing all he can to help them.  Plus he wants to learn all he can from more experienced beekeepers.  And as we all know, that's what it takes to survive the ups and downs of helping the bees.

Happy summer!