Common bee diseases

Many of these diseases are obvious and very disgusting. I appreciate the pictures so I know exactly what to look for but they were really gross. The American foul brood is caused by poor bee keeping practices but I would like to know exactly what those practices are? Apparently this disease can only be stopped by fire, I would like to know if there are any easier treatments? I believe that we have talked about chalk brood in class. It says that it is fount throughout the united states but is it found elsewhere? It would be nice if people worked harder at making cures for bee diseases, it would be to bad is your hive collapsed because you had no cure. We did a lab on Nosema, which is like a bee stomach flu. This is a particularly gross disease thankfully this disease has a cure, antibiotic Fumagillin sold as Fumidil-B mixed with sugar syrup. Most of the other diseases in the chart are insects or mites so I wont go through that in detail but the treatment is generally some sort of chemical. Other pests include squirrels, bears and racoons, the best way to get rid of them is either to kill them or prevent them from entering the hive. This is a good page to have bookmarked but I don't think that it is really something that needs to be memorized.

High School Garden

This is amazingly cool. I hope that in a few years we at least have the start to such a great garden. I would love our school to have an orchard, that would be really cool to grow apples trees and possibly sell the fruit or donate it. This is an awesome concept and I really hope that we adopt some of their ideas and use them in bettering out school. I think i would be great to have a place where students could compost the food scraps left over form their lunches.I think that we have enough students interested to start some new programs that will get us closer to that of Windermere secondary.

Worm Compost

I love worms and I have always known that they were good for compost so this idea intrigues me. I like that it can be done indoors so that in the winter you don't have to freeze outside when you do your composting. I love how this works though I'm not sure that my mom will let me keep worms in the house. Its nice that you can use any type of container, that way you don't feel the need to go out and buy a specialized compost container. Drilling holes in the bottom may be a problem for me but I think that I would be able to convince my dad to do it for me. All the bedding supplies I could get fairly easily (seaweed, sawdust, sand, straw, and other dead plants). The hardest material to get would be the worms , though it would be fun to search for worms though it will probably not take place with my friends as they are all squeamish. I always guessed but never knew that worms could drown when it gets to wet. This is my favourite composting technique. I will have to ask my parents for permission to start a worm composting bin.

Bokashi

Bokashi means fermented organic matter, this is a Japanese composting system. I know nothing about Bokashi so it was interesting to learn another way to compost than what I had grown up learning, kitchen scraps and lawn clippings and more recently, leaf mold. I like the idea that this is relatively odour free because if you are composting in an urban area you want to be conscientious of your neighbors. I also like that all kitchen waste can be reused including meat, this has always upset me, that somethings still have to be thrown out.The only real downside that I could see is that even after it is done it isn't, it still needs to be aged in soil before it can be used. You need a Bokashi bucket too start but this doesn't really upset me because you need a compost bin to compost. A strange part is that you need Bokashi mix, this is mostly wheat bran. I want to know how this aid composting. This seems like a good alternative to compost, but it also seems like a little more work, and I'm not quite sure how it works.

Compost

It works because of a bacteria, all we need to do is make sure they can do their job.I didn't know that it was bacteria doing the composting, I also didn't know that green materials are high in nitrogen and brown materials are high in carbon. Interestingly paper is considered brown material and can be used in compost. At Loutet farm I learned that thin layers are best and you want to air out your compost occasionally, and this was also mentioned in the video. Very wet and very dry compost are not preferable, you need the level of moisture to be about that of a damp sponge. The video had good information, and facts that I had not been aware of previously but the lady doing the talking kinda creeped me out.

Leaf Mold

This is nice to know, though I knew part of it before I watched the video because we are doing this in class. I didn't know that it took a year to make leaf mold though I did know that it took a very long time. To make leaf mold you need a wire cage,a rake, clap hands (though I would just use my hands), a wheel barrow (though we got on just fine with bags),a garden fork (though I'm not sure its necessary),and possible bone meal. The best leaves are from deciduous trees because they break down faster than glossy leaves. Pine needles need to be separated because they are too acidic for most plants. Damp leaves are the best because they decay faster. After you rake the leaves put them in the wire cage or in a pile in a damp shady corner to aid circulation.Bone meal should be added to aid in nitrogen levels.After you wait a year to decompose (turned occasionally throughout the year. This was a good video because it was short and to the point, and easy to understand. I like the idea of using leaves to make fertilizer, I'm not big on waste and if I can use natures garbage to help plant I am all for it, it helps that its relatively easy to do.

Winter Crops

I know nothing about planting a winter harvest so everything I learned was completely new.I learned that you should plant your winter harvest in August. Wind needs to protected against so it is preferable that your plant beds are raised. And that they will provide extra drainage. I loved the use of pictures in the guide, it really helped me understand what they were talking about. I got a good visual of what I was supposed to do. The chart that was provided was really easy to follow. I found this guide very helpful.

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