Varroa Mite: The Silent killer

No single disease, organism or bee-hater has killed more bees then the Varroa mite. These ectoparasites originate from asia but are now found almost all throughout the world. The mite is one of the largest parasites in relation to its host and the human equivalent of this mite would be like having a basketball sized parasite attached to your back! Not a pleasant thought! All Varroa mites that you see attached to bee's are female. Males are used simply for reproduction and never fully mature. A Varroa mite population can explode very quickly and do serious damage to a hive.

Nosema Lab instructions

The purpose of this lab is to determine if any Nosema is present within your bee hive. Nosema is a fungal infection of bees akin to the human common cold but can be quiet serious for a hive. A method that can BEE used to test for nosema is collecting a sample of bees, crushing them in a mortar and pestle and examining your sample under a microscope to directly identify nosema spores in the bee's intestines. The number of spores in a bee's digestive system can be determined using a heamocytometer, a grid in which you count the number of spores in a square and multiply that number by four million.

Common Bee Diseases

Firstly it seems there are a lot of things bees have to deal with, I feel bad for the little guys. There are many diseases and parasites that can infest a hide american foul-brood, chalk-brood, nosima and the infamous varroa mite to name a few. It seems that most disease can be avoided by simple hygienic handeling of  any tools or equipment that comes in contact with the hive. Identification and early treatment of a disease or any mites present in the hives seems imperative to successful treatment of any disease in the hive.

Composting

The amount of fertilizer you can get from your compost bin annually, about 100 kg, means that composting is a very worth while endevour. The mix of green  ( nitrogen-rich ) and brown ( Carbon-rich) materials or common and maintaing the compost bin seems very easy. I do not have a compost bin at my house, but them seem to easy to set up and valuable im thinking of making one.



Amanda from the compost video was cute.

DIRT

The corolation between healthy soil and great civilazations such as ancient Mesopotamia and anciet greece highlights the power of healthy soil and its neccesity in our lives. Soil seems to be tied to all sorts of issues, the fact that it can reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is really cool. Soil is teeming with life and the fact that there are billions of microbes living in healthy soil shows the interconections in nature. It is staggareing to me that there is limited funding in reasherch for the problem of soil degradation. its seems like a very serious problem.

I wonder how long it takes for healthy soil to mature?

Growing garlic

Garlic seems to be very specific. Dependent on your climate and what type you are growing. some need certain exposure to cold temperatures  others don't like moisture. Garlic is something i would certianly be interested in growing since its in so much of the food that i eat.

i wonder what the best variety of garlic would be to grow in our area?

Growing winter crops

Its intresting to me how some plants actually improve in flavour and texture during the winter months. I assumed that any plant you harvested in the winter would be stunted and bitter. I suppose our climate is really very mild. The idea that crop protection can be as elementary as planting your vegetables near a south facing wall is also a very interesting concept. It seems like you have to plant most of these winter crops in mid august so it already seems like were a little behind!