Chillardbees Grow Em' Like A Pair 2015 Grow Blog (Season 4)

[chillardbee]

Chillardbees angel leaf is a plant that was suppose to be izmir but wasn't. By the time the seed pods were ripening, the leaves over the whole plant were just about solid white. The leaf is close to being like burley for stickiness and has more rounded and ruffled edges on the leaf. We don't know what it is so we just call it that.

 

[chillardbee]

Hopefully bob will grow some this year and we can get his opinion on the matter.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Interesting, where did the seed originally come from.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

We should consider getting all of the strains dna sequenced. I think it costs about $50 per sample at UBC. I've got a couple connections I could talk to if that's not a retarded idea.

 

[chillardbee]

Interesting, where did the seed originally come from.

I was originally from Madhouse and marked as 'izmir'.

 

[chillardbee]

We should consider getting all of the strains dna sequenced. I think it costs about $50 per sample at UBC. I've got a couple connections I could talk to if that's not a retarded idea.

For me with a 160 varieties, that would be 8000.00 dollars...ouch. But it is something to consider for strains that we consider important part of our yearly grows.

 

[chillardbee]

So I have germination. To day I will fill up the pots (300 of them) with soil. Tomorrow will be transfering day. I must say that there are few things in life finer than listening to some quiet ambient music while transfering sprouted seeds.

 

[Knucklehead]

Delhi 61 and Delhi 76 originated in Canada. They should do very well there.

 

[chillardbee]

Delhi 61 and Delhi 76 originated in Canada. They should do very well there.

Haronova and Harrow 12 were developed here too but they were all developed in ontario and the difference between Ontario and British Columbia is +12 Degrees celsius here and -12 over there. in short, they get colder winter and hotter summers.

 

[chillardbee]

I got 300 pots filled with #4 sunshine mix. checked the seeds and all have sprouted. Tomorrow is probably that one day out of the year that I look most forward to and that transfering the sprouts. The only thing that I can say tht is as fun as that is grafting worker larva into queen cells to make queen bees.

Anyway, after I fill the pots up I put them out side to soak under the rain that we're having. The soil shuold be nice to accept the sprouts. The only one thats having trouble sprouting is N7371 burley, we'll see what they look like tomorrow.

 

[chillardbee]

I don't know how often i'll be posting pics or even posting my experiences for the next while. I have 400 nucs to make in the middle of this month and everything seems to be happening at once and never ending with the bees. once the nucs are picked up, it's going to be increase and build up for winter time and a $h!t load of equipment to build which will leave me with only the evenings to do baccy.

The baccy is is just starting to get the first leaf. they are small. I had a make shift green house over them for the first 2 weeks but the cover has been off now for the past couple of days and with all the nice days we've been having recently, I've had to water them daily.

I got most of the plastice mulch down (enough for 240 plants) but I have to reorganize the garden so I can lay down enough for another 60 more. When I get everything organized and just so, I'll post a picture.

PS: I'm not sure if the N7371 burley is going to grow this year. I seen germination but it's taking for ever for it to show any signs of life.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Will, do you raise your own queens for your nucs?

 

[chillardbee]

the 400 nucs i'm making are going to alberta and will have New Zealand queens. I rear my own queens for own increase and requeening from my own stock which has a lot of carniolan genetics with a little buckfast and minnasota hygenic in it. My own bees are super, I'm very happy with the way they overwinter, build up in spring, and produce honey. I'll likely be rearing 400-500 cells this year for my own operation around may or so.

 

[chillardbee]

Sad news about the N7371 burley, It doesn't look like it made it. They had sprouted good enough and even had one pop out of the ground but after just looking right now, nothing. So I think i'll just transfer some of the haronova over to those containers and go for a double crop on them.

PS: just as a side note - When I started germinating my seeds, I started some of the del gold from 2012 crop and still had 90% + germination.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Do you retail your honey?

 

[DGBAMA]

I had to look up "nucs"..... You have your work cut out for you.

 

[chillardbee]

I have been extremely fortunate that with in the past 2 weeks that I haven't had frost in my immediate vicinity. 2 days ago I was at a friends place to pick something up at 7:15 in the morning and he had a honest to goodness frost on his lawn. He's located about 7 miles northeast of me. I haven't had the make shift green house over the plants for quite some time, so, maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket for the luck I've had. Anyway, the weather starting to change for the better in a serious way now and I should start seeing some good growth from the plants, finally.

Seeing how far along the plants are from when I first started them makes me think that there's no need to start any earllier then mid april if I'm starting outdoors like I normally do.

 

[deluxestogie]

Here, in the sunny South, the temps stay nice and encouraging...until that last minute, "gotcha!" frost that seems to show up in early to mid May. They call it Canadian air.

Bob

 

[chillardbee]

It's been a while since my last post. It seems like it's taking forever for my baccy to start any king of growth. They are finally getting some size on the first true leaves although they are still small. I guess it's not too bad though since it's only been a month since they've been out of the ground. As time moves on we'll be getting better weather too and that'll help.

I think I'm going to repopulate containers that don't have any plants with the extras from other pots and start thinning out to 2 plants per pot. This will take time with the 300 that I have to go through.

I'm not doing much with the plants other then that since I've been so crazy busy with the bees. I can't wait for the plants to be big enough to transplant though.

 

[Chicken]

Im around bees all day long...id say 85% of the big farms i deliver to use a lot of bee boxes...to pollinate thier crop for them.

I try to park away from the bees....but sometimes im right next to them...real spooky for me watching all them bees swarming.

Most fields have a small staging area..where everything that happens in that field..is done in that small space.