On the Farm- Bees and Zucchini

We have honeybees at the farm primarily to pollinate the produce and crops. I would say we are more or less lazy beekeepers except in the spring when we try to keep ahead of them and then do a split or two. We had a large hive that seemed to be working very quickly and filling everything we gave it at a rapid pace. Rather than continuously adding empty frames for it to work with, we decided to split it.

Sometimes this kind of split is called a "Poor Man's Split" because we don't add a queen to the new hive (and we hope that we have not removed the queen from the other hive). 

Now we are up to three hives as long as the new hive goes well. On the plus side, we just HAD to pull a few frames of honey!

Massive zucchini plants

Zucchini blossoms and zucchini

In other news, we have ZUCCHINI at the farm- producing prolifically! I grew up in Southern Ohio, and I never saw zucchini in early May. I can't say I have seen zucchini in early May anywhere that I have lived! Mike started zucchini in the new hoop house and I don't think he was expecting that it would take over the aisle and practically half of the hoop house! It's a wonderfully squeaky vegetable when you eat it raw or lightly cooked!

Tomatoes in the hoop house

Shell peas

Our tomatoes in the smaller hoop house are doing well and we harvested the first batch of shelling peas this evening. We will probably have snow peas, shell peas, and zucchini at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market this coming Saturday!