Insects

Out watching the ducks chasing flying insects in the orchard this evening.  With the extremely warm day, the air is filled with flying morsels of protein and the ducks look mighty happy.   Yesterday, John and Idunn- both armed only with veils and short sleeved shirts- captured a swarm of honeybees in the orchard.  The bees, possibly a break-away swarm from our hive, covered a pear branch.  John shook the branch to get half the bees to fall into a bee box.  Later Idunn checked the box and helped put the lid on.  In the next few days the two of them will check the hive for a queen.

The not-so-good insects are also making an appearance.  We’ve had to deal with the first generation of imported currant worms on our gooseberries.  If you have just a few (or many)  plants, you need to be vigilant against the pale green larvae.  Look over your gooseberry leaves carefully, if you spot black specks of frass or tiny holes in the leaves you need to lift leaves and find the larvae.  They can be drowned in a soapy mixture, or just squished.  Larvae of the third generation overwinter in cocoons in the soil and I can only imagine how easy their winter was this year.

Spring seed planting