Category Archives: Bees

Earthship PR on Earth Day

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Earthship PR in Aguada, Puerto Rico

I have heard about the Earthship in Aguada for some time, but haven’t had the chance to check it out until now. It has been a working apiary (TainaSoy/Chaparro Apiaro) but recently has transformed into something magical. The Earthship PR has a lot of potential as it is still in its infancy, but it was great to see the results in the making. Based on the biotechture Earthships of Taos New Mexico, the goal is for it to be a sustainably built (using tires, cans, bottles and other “trash”) community center that is completely off grid -water, electricity and food. At this point it has a basic working rainwater system, and a very minimal solar set up (one panel) and a small garden.


Derek and Matt led the discussion

But the coolest thing to me was the structure style and re-use of the colored glass bottles to make a stain-glass effect in the dome-like huts. It felt like we were in a movie/art set. The soft edges made it seem like we were in a fairy tale setting dancing under mushroom caps. From the vision of Eco-sustainability to the community engagement (it was built nearly all from volunteer labor) and just the sheer “cool factor” this place was a true inspiration of what can be possible with a little dream and a lot of elbow grease! Check out the video below for a full tour. The Earth Day event was also a lot of fun with bomba music, local artisans and food, and just a really chill, good vibe to help us appreciate how awesome it is to live on planet Earth!


Inside the first hut


Beautiful art work


Down by the river area people were set up hanging out, playing music

Aeden checking out the glass cut outs


Me, Derek and Matt on the tour

My friend Missy with her homemade soap using goat milk and beeswax from there


They are small Dome-like structures (maybe 10×10). I enjoyed the art on the walls


Lovely heliconias in bloom


And a lot of pineapples everywhere we looked!


From the backside -a work in progress!


How the dome structures are built- tires and a rebar cage dome filled with refuse and concrete


Goat on a rope


Open every Saturday -bring food, bring support, volunteer in whatever manner you can!


People on the tour during Earth Day


Me and Aeden down by the river/quebrada area


A special thanks to David White for filming this interview

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Bee Removal From a House -The Easiest Way

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Bee removal 2

Bees are a way of life here and like many things we were initially freaked out about when moving here (have you seen the rats?! haha) we have taken them on as a learning opportunity. We love bees and all the work they do. They pollinate so many of our beautiful flowers and fruit trees that there is no doubt that we want to help them as much as possible.

Tropical gardens flowers
Some of the beautiful flora we grow here

Pomarrosa flowerFlor de Pomarrosa

Bilimbe flower
Our first bilimbe flowers!

Berry thingsA wild currently unknown tree with beautiful red berries (anyone venture a guess?)

However, we really don’t want them to be living inside our walls. I wasn’t too surprised when I walked past the shed and saw a few bees entering the drain area of the wall. I knew exactly what was happening. We have had so many bees building homes in the cavities of the wood house that this was kind of expected. We have in the past hired people to come and take the bees away. And some people will use poison, but there is one other way to get the bees out of your house without actually touching them or harming them! And it is by far the easiest and cheapest!

Cassie and Kitty crop
Kitty and I are on a bee safari!

Bee time
Britton (and Kitty) getting down to bzzzzness

Cover yourself so that the bees can’t sting you and then just simply open up the cavity and walk away! In one day they will be gone. Bees need to have protection on both sides, so if one side is open, they will have no choice but to leave. And that is exactly what happened with this hive.

Bee time hiveIEmpty cavity
Lots of bees! And then one day later they are gone! Easy peasy!

The next level in this game would be to actually handle the bees and put them into a beehive where we could then harvest some of their honey. But for now we are pretty proud to be able to do this ourselves! We’ve come a long way since our first house bee hives!

Here’s a funky fun video of this easiest of bee removals. (Check out 2:45 for a close up of all the bees)

 

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And New Baby Turkeys!

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Today we found two baby turkey poults. They had been separated from their mom by the fence, so Britton went over and helped them over.

Britton and the turkey mom and babies
Britton helping out the turkey mom and babies

The mom seems very proud of these two little ones and they look as if they have just hatched. There are 4 other turkeys in the jungle, and probably more eggs on the nest that these came from, so we may soon be overrun by turkeys! Yay!

Turkey mom and chicks
The poults are so small compared to the mom

It is springtime here in the tropics. The birds and the bees are doing their thing. The next generation is in full swing.

Parcha
Big black bee pollinating a passionfruit flower

Mama turkey and her babes

 

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Bees in a Jar

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Today as I was walking from the cabana down to the coop with the daily catch of fallen mangoes for the compost pile I got a bit of a surprise.  A bee up and stung me in the ear!  I dropped all the mangoes and ran while the bruised and over-ripe fruit started rolling down the hill.  At about the same time the water hose popped and sprung a leak!

Cassie said I looked like a cartoon with my flailing about, yelling and running.  As we were going back towards the cabana there were more bees bumping us, giving us that tell tale warning that they are going to attack.

We got in the cabana and shut the door….. “Holy smokes!  What the hell was that?”  Had we stepped on one on the way down to the coop?  We normally don’t get stung by the few bees that visit the yard, especially having cleared out all the previous hives living within the wood house and the trunk of the old mango tree.  Bees are supposed to only sting when they feel threatened or if the hive is under attack.

After about 10 minutes and looking at my stung ear as it swelled we decided to go back out and see if we could figure out what was going on.  We went up on top of the cabana because it offers a good view.  We weren’t up there 5 minutes and we started getting bumped again by bees.  We ran.  We got back in the cabana and decided that there was something up and that we would give them some time to calm down.  We went to town for some food, groceries and another mower blade.

When we went to let the chickens out Cassie spotted what was causing all the commotion.

Swarm (2)
Bee Swarm (click to enlarge)

There were quite a few bees on one of the Mexicola avocado tree leaves, so we must have a swarm on our hands.  This is a very small swarm by swarm standards, actually tiny.  This was a perfect opportunity for me to use my newbee bee keeping skills!  I went and grabbed a jar, some scissors, gloves and the bee veil.

It didn’t take very long, and I didn’t get stung but there is a queen in with the swarm.  Not sure where it came from or why it is so small, but it all went well and put an end to the bee sting mystery and I gained 5 experience points in my bee skills!  I would rather do this with a small amount of bees to start with.  If there were hundreds of bees it would have been more intimidating but I think even then I would be up to the task.

We don’t have an empty hive yet, but now we think we should have one around for the next swarm opportunity.  For this group I am just glad they aren’t going to end up inside the walls of the house and I wanted to take care of a potential issue as well as some aggressive bees in the yard. Bees are not known for being aggressive when they swarm.  I think it is possible they were fighting with another hive in the base of the big mango we took down a few weeks ago. There were some bees flying super fast all over today.

Bees in a jar
Bees in a Jar

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