Cynndara Morgan

Actually I got it backwards. Too many years since I was in Pharmacology now! H2 is the antacid group like Prilosec. H1 is the OTC bronchoconstriction/allergy med group like Benadryl (diphenhydramine). H3 receptors are poorly studied and mediate neurotransmitter release, which is the probable cause of my hallucinations, as well as the drowsiness that's a more typical response to allergy meds. (HUMAN PHARMACOLOGY, Wingard et al, 1991 -- one of many, many free textbooks handed out to my boss by desperate publishers). But again, 1) most drugs that affect one receptor subset will also affect the others, but probably not as much, 2) individual specifications can vary (yes, YOUR body might have h2 receptors coming out the wazoo and almost no H1s, or vice-versa), 3) developmental history and environment can lead to up- or down-regulation of receptor populations, 4) many drugs will act as partial BLOCKERS at one receptor while being normal agonists (increase/activate effects) at another, and 5) most body systems have what is known as "autoceptors", which are receptors on the cells that secrete a neurotransmitter or hormone, that detect when they're swimming in the stuff and transmit information to the cell to STOP! YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH!

Very complex stuff. So in any individual case, your own experience is the best predictor of future results, but there IS no absolute predictor of future results. For instance, most of the time I drink alcohol I get a headache about 45 minutes later and then I get REAL sleepy, end of experience, no real point in drinking. One time in twenty, I get socially relaxed, flirty, make brilliantly witty jokes and become the life of the party. I usually Know when it will work . . . but I couldn't tell you why. Probably it's the result of pre-existing neurotransmitter balances that I can sense as part of my "mood". Certainly it has something to do with how much sleep I've had recently. But the important lesson is, when dealing with a complex system you can't assume that A + B always equals C and not D or E. It's more like a moving probability function. Even somebody like myself who's never had a serious allergic reaction to bees in fifty years should keep emergency Epi on hand in case the unpredictable happens. Unless they are likely to have a deadly reaction to Epi.

MMMmmmmm, Clifford. After twenty years in medical research/pharmacology and toxicology, let me comment on that last. First, people who are allergic can develop resistance to an allergen if they are exposed to it -- that's what the formal shots try to do. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. Some people are SO allergic that they risk their lives by exposure, and therefore trying to develop resistance is downright dangerous. Secondly, bee venom is one of the most allergenic substances on earth, and a sting injects it straight into the bloodstream, where it can most effectively activate allergic responses. Third, despite Second, bee venom also contains an amazing array of anti-inflammatory substances that can reduce other inflammatory reactions such as arthritis, gout, and MS symptoms; thus there are people who deliberately sting themselves in order to trade the short-term pain (if not allergic) for the long-term relief. For these reasons, and the fact that every individual's reaction to the allergenic proteins in the venom is different, and their mix of inflammatory substances affected by the anti-inflammatories is different, everyone reacts slightly differently to bee stings. That reaction can change over time. A person who is repeatedly stung -- especially if it occurs in a single mass event -- may become "sensitized" and suddenly exhibit an allergic reaction where they didn't have one before. But this certainly isn't inevitable. The interaction of personal biochemistry and environment is massively complex, and as the research team at Philip Morris informed my ex when he was interning there, "Given the exact same circumstances of exposure, temperature, nutrients and humidity, the organism will do as it damned well pleases. Welcome to the wonderful world of applied biology." This is why when it comes to something as complex and variable as agriculture, which involves multiple organisms and complex environments, YOUR mileage is the only metric that matters.

Prilosec is an H1-blocker, that is, a selective anti-histamine. So if your inflammatory response is operating off the H1 rather than the H2 pathway, it may effectively inhibit an allergic reaction. OTC antihistamines may also be effective. Epi-pen is a last-ditch rescue med for an allergic reaction that's blocking your airway. It does NOT actually inhibit the inflammatory/allergic response; it alleviates the single major life-threatening symptom by other mechanisms. If you can get an anti-histamine to work fast enough, it will do a more complete job.

Unfortunately, I have an idiosyncratic reaction to H2 antihistamines. They cause hallucinations!

Ah! Solutions! GOATS! Goats are already on the agenda for dealing with the blackberry suckers. First, hire Chainsaw Man to remove the big/tall trunks. Second, hack and paint stumps and remaining sprouts/saplings. Third, bring in goats in the spring when they start to sprout again. Hack and paint anything that goats refuse to eat. Repeat. Ad infinitum, probably. Like the damned burdock and blackberry. I never expected it to be easy. This place is my permanent weight-loss treatment.

Would anyone here have any ideas on how to handle a Stinktree infestation? Normally, I wouldn't want to remove volunteer trees. But these things took over a slope where I had intended to plant the blueberries while I was trying to recover from the stock market crash, and not only are they invasive suckering pests that smell bad, but apparently that smell is a natural herbicide that kills anything trying to grow under or around them. Seems to me that the shredded wood ought to carry a premium as mulch for suburbanites in hock to Monsanto, but my research indicates that chopping 'em down just keeps them coming, and coming . . .

And considering that swarm/supersedure season is in May/June in my neck of the woods, during which the Monsoon inevitably brings a two-week period of constant rain at temps of about 50, that could have been some of the problem right there.

OK. I looked over a few pages on Warre's method and Perone's concerns. Neither seems too terribly off to me, but neither really seems to mandate that I junk all my woodenware, either. Basically, Perone says not to feed bees sugar, and not to rip off more honey than they can spare. Uh, DUH? I was under the impression that feeding was an emergency measure for Northern beekeepers whose bees could starve over a six-month winter, or for administering meds. In Virginia, winter lasts six weeks, with several breaks for defecation flights. My location will have perfectly adequate bee-forage; we selected the place partly on that basis. Maple, sourwood, liriodendron, honey and black locust are all in good supply, as well as a fine autumn bloom of goldenrod and aster. Meds, well, my ex struggled with those and with the varroa, and I've read a bit of the alternative literature. The natural hive structure looks like it might be useful with the varroa; the logic is similar to the people who claim that using small-cell starter comb encourages a more natural comb size that doesn't leave the varroa room to grow. Tracheal mites were never much of a problem for us and mint works just fine on them. I wasn't too keen on the terramycin patties every spring, I was intending to "wait and see" if there really was a need for them as the ex never really settled that issue. A lot of the "standard" methods, frankly, are for people who keep hundreds of hives and cart them all over the country in the backs of trucks, which I can't see as good for any living thing.

All that said, the Warre system requires lifting the ENTIRE COLONY up to place new supers on the bottom. Being under five feet and over fifty, that just ain't gonna fly for me. I can use a stepladder to get up and place a couple of shallow honey supers; we used one or two deeps for the brood area, which would only be disturbed if the ex was trying to mess with the queens. Swarming and supercession was a problem for us; it's better to intentionally place a young queen in an old hive than suddenly find the colony going queenless when you're unprepared. But, that's an issue the ex never really solved on a systematic basis, just tried to deal with as it came up. Looking at these references, I do remember a vague impression that colonies given two full, deep boxes as brood area ("doubles") seemed to do better than his sources were telling him they ought to, and were some of his best. And, uh, given what the mice did to the frames and comb that were left in those boxes, those were a dead loss anyway. I recall that it takes bees a good deal of time and effort to make comb when you rather would like if they were socking away honey. But if it saves me a couple hundred dollars at the outset, I might do best to let the girls do it their own way. Especially if that lets them incorporate their own defense strategies. Are any of you raising bees in Appalachia?

Jack, I'm brand new here, but I've been studying ecological gardening (which they're now calling Permaculture) since the 80's, planting trees for forty years, and spent fourteen years gardening a quarter-acre suburban plot in Richmond VA. I would suggest getting those trees in in the fall. That gives them the entire winter to grow roots, which is much better in our climate than spring planting. Do your best to uncompact and amend the soil within three feet of each tree and five feet down. That will be enough work to keep you busy all summer while you watch your plot, get your test results, and think some more. Don't plant until the trees have lost their leaves and go completely dormant, and don't water them. Don't try to plant too many at once, either. Go only for your main focus/key landscape supports on the first dip. Time for more in the spring, or next year.

Getting that soil nice and grow-happy within three feet of your trunks will give you room to work around the trees on the rest of the soil without disturbing their roots for a couple of years. If you want to underplant them with pretty flower-bulbs or perennials, you can do that at the same time; it's much more difficult later when you'll run into tree roots every time you dig a hole.

Question from a newbie here . . . my ex used to keep hives both in our suburban yard and at his folks' small acreage an hour or so away; I observed without participating much for about seven years (I did a lot of watching . . . and some standing around fetching and carrying while he was trying to save swarms, and some honey straining and canning). Is there some kind of problem now being seen with the standard Langstroth hive? I have a few he left in the mountain cabin and willed to me when he let me buy out that property in the divorce, and I was rather hoping to get them filled and flourishing. The location is reasonably isolated both from agricultural chemicals and domesticated bees carrying various parasites, although of course nothing is completely isolated.

Although the mice got into the bee-boxes during the years when I had to leave the place empty, and I'm going to have to bleach them all down for sanitation.

Actually, they look rather like peonies. What's your location, the microenvironment, and the other plants in the yard other than grass? Peonies will grow in grass no problem; if that's what they are they're fairly young or the remains after someone divided the plants and took out the bigger half. But there are dozens of things with similar appearance in photos. It's hard to tell without scale, climate, or relative location, not to mention taste and smell, appearance in four seasons and a look at the roots.

Lack of flowers is no indication, although of course peony flowers ARE immediately distinctive. Given the appearance of barren, compacted earth in their vicinity, these would be quite within their rights to sulk and not flower for years, though.