Dr. Suzanne Simard is a professor with the UBC Faculty of Forestry, where she lectures on and researches the role of mycorrhizae and mycorrhizal networks in tree species migrations with climate change disturbance. Networks of mycorrhizal fungal mycelium have recently been discovered by Professor Suzanne Simard and her graduate students to connect the roots of trees and facilitate the sharing of resources in Douglas-fir forests of interior British Columbia, thereby bolstering their resilience against disturbance or stress and facilitating the establishment of new regeneration.

via Botany Photo of the Day: Mycorrhizal Networks.

Queen Ant Will Sacrifice Colony to Retain Throne | LiveScience

A mighty struggle for ultimate power, with calls of “death to the queen” answered by armies of workers, is routine in some ant colonies. Queen ants are therefore sometimes forced to take care of themselves rather than look out for the good of their colonies, a new study suggests.Queen ants will do whatever it takes to be the last one standing, even if it means producing fewer young workers to the detriment of the collective.

via Queen Ant Will Sacrifice Colony to Retain Throne | LiveScience.

One of the taps I put in today.

Got’s me a sugar bush tapped.

Sounds dirty. Let’s rephrase that. I put taps in a bunch of sugar maple trees today.

Da tapping a tree.

The sap was flowing nicely. Seems like winter still, but the trees always know what’s going on. And they were acting like it’s spring.

The snow is still pretty deep out at my folk’s house. It’s wet and tough going when you are slogging through it. It’s melting though and evaporating away. Hopefully the cement pad that we set up with a tarp will be cleared off by next weekend. As long as I can get the van to at least the edge of the woods we’ll be good. We keep fantasizing about getting a four-wheel-drive quad or something. One of these years I hope we break down and get one.

I still have to cut, haul and split a bunch of wood; clear out the ole evaporator and get the jugs on the trees. I’m also going to have to come up with a food grade barrel to hold the sap in. Two would probably be better.

We tried to keep the taps closer to the main path that winds through the woods and on the fence row on the south edge of the treeline. A tree that grows on the north side of a field will have a bigger crown and produce a lot more sap.

The corn field to the south of the woods.

You’ll often see long lines of big old maple trees growing on the north side of the east-west roads around here. People planted them to harvest the sap back in the old days. They get big crowns that way.

Aside from my muffler falling off, it was a very good day. Getting out in the woods always does that for me.

Well, I got an incubator made today too. At least I can say that I got some things accomplished. I even posted an entry in the ole blog. Woot.

I suppose you’d have to be living under a rock these days to have not heard that the honey bees and beekeepers are in trouble. The problems are complex, far reaching and mostly recent. They are certainly a threat to the survival of the beekeeping industry but, even more so, to the survival of many plants which we need or want for food and many other plants that are a necessary part of the environment.

via Beekeeping Naturally, Bush Bees.

The Leader WSE Evaporator is designed for the hobby maple syrup producer that is serious about turning sap into syrup quickly and efficiently. The WSE Maple Sap Evaporator is a combination of two stainless steel, tig welded pans sold as a set, and a Fire Box called the Arch. Each Leader WSE Evaporator is customized to fit the needs of your maple operation.

via Leader 2×4 and 2×6 WSE Wood Fired Maple Syrup Evaporator.

I’m amazed at the complexity that the professional maple syrup evaporators exhibit. Makes me want to build a sugar shack, buy a pick-up, 4-wheeler and a serious set-up and do this for profit. But eeh gads, the expense!

Anyone want to invest in a syrup business? haha.

If you just want to build yourself a relatively cheap set-up, check out Homemade Maple Equipment topic on Mapletrader.com. Amazing ingenuity there.

She’s decided to do square beds and has gotten a Square Foot Gardener book. I think it’s gimmicky, but it still has good info. We’ll see what happens.

Looking for an inexpensive, high protein food source for your chickens that is quickly and naturally renewable? Why not start your very own Soldier Grub farm!

via Raise BioGrubs as a Cheap Food Source for Chickens..

Some bees will steal honeydew from aphids to make their honey, which shows how they are opportunists. Rather than start from nectar, they skip the beehours of labor and get a substance that is higher in original sugar content.

But they are also shortsighted in their pursuits. If they eat honeydew honey during a cold winter it can kill them (or at least make them very uncomfortable from dysentery).

From wikipedia.org: honeybees.

You can trick them with smell. They are VERY scent reliant. Many of the complex behaviors, including when the queen swarms, how the brood is reared, how they find the best flowers or a new hive and more are led by scent.

For example, you can attract a swarm to a hive with lemon grass oil. If you add a half portion of rose oil it may be even more effective.

If you wear rubber dish gloves (the thicker variety) and reach your hand into a hive of bees when it is cooler out, it feels like you are reaching into a warm oven. It’s way above the ambient temperature. You can do it barehanded if you are careful and the bees are in a good mood.

There are few sounds as impressive (or intimidating) as an angry and buzzing hive of bees.

More bees are interested in licking honey off of you than stinging you, even when you are cutting their hive apart during a cutout.

Angry bees are very often hungry bees.

Honeybees get to know their keeper. They recognize you and after a time don’t get as alarmed because they know they can trust you to not be destroying their hive (hopefully my cutouts will forget that part!).

via Apitherapy News: Bee Pollen is One of Nature’s Most Perfect Foods.

A TBH in the Michigan winter.

OK. Uncle. I give. Enough already!

I am hereby extra-ready for spring. I know it’s just around the corner (or at least the weather guys at work keep assuring me so), but I’m becoming a little impatient.

Don’t get me wrong. I mean hey, I did move back to Michigan from Florida, so I can only blame myself for having to put up with winter. But I’ve had enough this year. I need some sunshine and some green. The monochrome thing is stale.

At least winter is a time to plan. Big stuff will be happening in the garden. The chicken moat will be finished. Some raised beds will be made. And we have sugarin just around the corner in the next couple of weeks. Gotta get the seeds started soon too and get the lights set up.

I can’t help feeling sorry for the chickens though. They sure to look cold, even if they have “down coats” on. They rarely venture out of the coop. Every so often I see one poke its head out and peck at the snow, as if it hopes to scare it away.

Apparently the snow is not scared by chickens. Go figure.