Growing Garlic

Seeing 'Growing Garlic' as one of the weekly reading kind of surprised me as I didn't think we would be looking so closely at individually plants. However after reading the article I realized that garlic is unlike anything that my family has every planted before. I did not think that so much preparation had to be taken care of before any actual planting could take place. I know that my family uses garlic a lot in cooking so I was curious to see where we kept it. Turns out that we are following the rules very well as they are kept in a very dry place that is well ventilated.
I found it interesting that while it takes a lot of work to plant the garlic and take care of it and harvest it, it also seems quite hard to pick out what garlic to plant. I don't think that I would want to try and pick out local garlic without the help of someone else. I was wondering what the uses of elephant garlic would be if no one plants it for the taste.

Planting Winter Crops

I figured that with planting crops in the winter you would have to provide some sort of protection, but the only things that came to my mind were building shelters for the plants. I did not know that raising the crop beds and the location of where you plant the crops could provide protection. I noticed that a lot of the crops that were on the list that could overwinter were also options for us to plant at our school. I remember planning out our gardens and we chose many of those plants for the reason that we would need to plant them to last the winter. I learned that August is a very good month to plant many crops, and is the ideal month for most overwinter crops. Some however are ready sooner than that and are ready to eat by october. This brought pumpkins to mind for me as they always seem to be ready at the exact right moment. I also noticed that a lot of the vegetables that you can plant for the wintertime seem to be the vegetables that a lot of people dislike. I am curious if being tougher to survive the winter makes these vegetables more bitter or harder to eat.

Bee Waggle Dance

I thought that the way the bees communicate to each other is amazing, and also a bit harsh. The video said that if the bee does not stop dancing immediately after the other bees want more information, they sting that bee to death. That seems like a very high pressure way to tell bees where to find flowers. When the video actually showed the bee dance, I thought that it was amazing that bees could count and tell direction from the sun. When we go into the hive we probably disturb the bees too much to see the waggle dance but it would be incredible to actually witness. However I was wondering, since bees have very poor eyesight how they would be able to discern the precise movements of the bee. Especially the counting part, it happened too fast for me to see it the first time. I could only see it when the video slowed it down, so with the limited eyesight of the bees I'm not sure how they can determine that the bee wagged back and forth six times.

Hive Design

After watching the video that explained how to make your own hive, I realized that our big hive was the design that he was describing as the most common. Our hive has two bodies that are deeper than the one that he was making. The hive frames at the school are longer however since his had three stacks there would be about the same amount to surface area and he would be able to move the frames about more easily. The purpose of the design of the frames is so that each frame can be removed with minimal disturbance to the bees and the honey can be extracted easily. There are many opening on the top cover for the bees to be able to com and go freely. There is a bottom board in every Langstroth hive, so I am curious to see whether our bee hive uses a mesh bottom or not. Finally there is a wood covering that goes on the top.
I thought it was interesting that the bees always lay their eggs in the bottom of the hive, and make their honey in the top ones. I saw a lot of similarities to the bigger hive, but I haven't had a chance to look more closely at the smaller one at our school. Since it is smaller I am guessing that the smaller one uses medium hive bodies like his did, but I will look for the design next time we enter the bee hive.

The Lifecycle Of A Bee

Bees start out as eggs that the queen lays in the cells of the honeycomb. It only stays in the egg for three days from which it emerges as white legless larva. While it has hatched it still remains in the cells of a honeycomb for another 9 days where it eats and sheds it skin 5 times. It is fed royal jelly until it cannot eat anymore at which point the cell is covered in wax and pollen to start the process of the larva becoming a pupa. This stage is where the bee transforms into an adult. They do this by covering themselves in a cocoon and the head, thorax and then the wings develop. During this stage the bee is not being fed. This entire process takes 21 days when the bee frees itself from the cocoon and emerges as an adult bee.
I am interested in seeing a newly emerged bee as I thought the cells only contained honey. However I don't understand how the bees are able to go so long in the pupa stage without eating anything as they go through their largest transformation.
From there the worker bees are split up into two categories, house bees and field bees. The house bees feed the old bees and the larva, clean the cells, produce wax and ventilate the hive.
We talked about the male bees, so I was wondering if this process was only in reference to female bees who are not the queen.

Bee Safety

Bees are very sensitive to colour and scent, as they send many messages through the release of pheromones. For this reason when around the bees make sure that you aren't wearing any perfume, haven't eaten right before going into the hive, aren't hungry and haven't just drunk coffee as these will irritate the bees. For colours, bees like white and hate black. This is why the bee suits are completely white. Before entering the hive, smoke should be administered so the bees have a chance to calm down before you enter the hive. When actually entering the hive, you should use calm and exaggerated movements so the bees don't get nervous. If the bees do get agitated the worst thing to do is start swatting them away, the best thing to do is back away slowly and give the bees a chance to calm down. While we won't be using it, alcohol can help if you do get stung. To prevent getting stung make sure to double check all the openings on the suit. However in the event that a bee does sting you, immediately remove the stinger and benedryl is effective at reducing the swelling. Vinegar can help to mask the smell as when the bee stung you, they release a pheromone that lets other bees know there is an enemy and to sting you in the same spot.
I was wondering if you are allowed to administer an epi-pen on another person unless you are certified to do so. If someone does happen to have something the smells with them when we go to the hive, I'm interested to see how long it takes for the bees to react and what their reaction would be.