This morning the topic of the course was Patterns. Patterns form in response to energy flows. The pressures of two media intersecting, like where land meets water, where high pressure air meets low pressure air, or where a forest meets a grassland, creates patterns.
Patterns can come in a relatively few different kinds, but infinite variations exist for each theme. Concentric circles, spirals, sine curves, tesselations, and dendritic patterns are a few examples.
Dendritic patterns are useful for resource collection and distribution, like the roots and branches of trees, or the estuaries and deltas of rivers.
Functional patterns save energy. Geoff Lawton encourages us as permies to let patterns evolve, to uncover them through observation, and to harmonize with them. While we can attempt to enhance, direct, replicate, mimic, work with, or work against natural patterns, it takes less energy to work with nature than against her.
Water-based systems, for example, don't have to fight as hard against gravity. Organisms sort of float about and can focus more energy on growth.
Ecotones, or transition areas where two or more ecosystems meet, have greater diversity because they accommodate species from both systems, plus other species that thrive in that unique edge environment.
Sepp Holzer encourages being aware of where in the landscape you are, and of utilizing randomized and imperfect patterns in design. Avoid straight lines, even if doing so seems less economical in the short term. Devin pointed out that aesthetic beauty adds to the long-term resilience of an installation in a human environment. If your design is aesthetically pleasing, living and working within it is a more enjoyable experience and so you may end up doing it more often, and future inhabitants may be less likely to want to destroy it.
Patterns are often microcosms. The great is contained within the small, like fractals. Infinitely repeated self-similarities.
The pattern pattern was broken temporarily during a break, when Zach took some time to describe how to make Sepp's bone sauce. This sauce is essentially pyrolised bone marrow. Pyrolysis is basically combustion in an oxygen-less pressurized environment. Phylols are released from the marrow in a relatively concentrated form that acts as a powerful deterrent to herbivores. Small amounts of the sauce can be flicked onto the trunks and branches of trees or shrubs to keep deer and other herbivorous critters from eating them.
To make the sauce you'll need two cast-iron pots of the same size. Dutch ovens can work, but you won't want to use them afterwards for anything else, so it's best to find something you can afford to dedicate to the purpose. The bones are packed into one of the pots, a metal screen laid across the opening, and then the bone-filled pot is flipped upside down on top of the other pot. The lower pot is set below grade and contains just a tablespoon or two of water. The pots should fit together snugly and be sealed by clay, then some dirt bermed up against them to further prevent embers from getting in.
Once your pyrolysis chamber is good and sealed, build a fire around the upper pot and as it burns down add the coals back on top. The fire should take between 4 and 6 hours to fully burn down. Let it sit for maybe a day before opening. The bones should be just barely charred, and the sauce in the bottom pot should be a dark yellowish color. If it's black, and the bones are fully charred, then you burned it and it won't be as effective of a deterrent.
The bone sauce will be a solid at room temperature, so you'll need to melt it down to a liquid before applying. The sauce is very strong, so don't paint it on the tree you want to protect, just a flick is plenty. Zach recommends applying it in spring and fall, but Sepp claims it can be applied just once and will last long enough for the tree to grow to a size where it won't be harmed by browsing.
This afternoon we had Dave Hunter and Jacqueline Freeman here talking about bees! They covered a lot of material and my notes are pretty disorganized so the following summary might be a little disordered, but I'll do my best. Dave went first and focused on native pollinating bees and especially mason bees.
There are more than 4,000 species of bees in North America alone, and over 20,000 different species worldwide. 90% of bees are solitary, like mason bees, aglaia bees, leafcutter bees, and mud daubers. 10% are social, like honey bees, hornets, and wasps. Of all the bee species, about 70% are ground-nesting, like bumblebees, digger bees, and alkaline bees.
The purpose of bees is, of course, the survival of their species, to gather food, to reproduce. They're part of a symbiotic relationship with plants where their role is to transfer pollen. Flowers are the reproductive organs of plants, and they come in different shapes, colors, and scents to attract and accomodate different pollinators. White flowers tend to have stronger scents and are pollinated by bats and moths. Red flowers tend to not have as much odor and are typically pollinated by birds. Other colorful, scented flowers are pollinated by bees and other insects.
Dave laid out some definitions of plants. Native plants are those that grew here already without human intervention. Naturalized plants were transplanted by humans but don't require ongoing intervention. Artificial plants, without ongoing management, will die. Hybrids can be organically combined to meet different requirements. GMOs are typically combinations of genes from different species that couldn't have hybridized without significant technological intervention.
If there are native flowers in your environment, then there are native bees. If you only have a partial season of bloom, then you'll probably only have solitary bees arriving in synch with the flowers. If you have a full season, then the potential exists for both social and solitary bees. For naturalized or artificial flowers, you may have to bring bees in.
Dave laid out some differences between social and solitary bees. With social bees, there is one queen for one hive, whereas with solitary bees, each female is a queen unto herself. Social bees tend to be more defensive, while solitary bees tend to be gentler. Social bees need a hive structure and may require specialized equipment/clothing to manage, (though this is not necessarily always the case,) whereas solitary bees basically just need a hole kept dry. Social bees may need continual care, (again, not necessarily,) but solitary bees may only need about an hour of care per year. Social bees can have an active hive year-round, whereas solitary bees only pollinate for about 6 weeks. Social bees can be moved either under 2 ft or over 2 miles, but moving them some distance in between can disorient them. Solitary bees tend to want to stay put and are extremely disoriented when you move their home. Social and solitary bees can be kept together in the same general area without conflict.
Honey bees are careful and meticulous pollinators. They use saliva to stick pollen to their hind legs like little saddle bags, and also have an electromagnetic charge that holds the pollen on. When they arrive in the hive, the pollen is gathered up, mixed with saliva and packed into cells as food for young bees. Mason bees are careless party animals by comparison, and they just carry pollen on their abdomen dry, allowing much of it to spill during flight.
Solitary bee nesting substrate can be clayey mud, cut or chewed leaves, resin, or cotton. They build their nests in a specific order: first pollen, then egg, then substrate material.
Dave shared how to integrate bees into a farm. Raising mason bees requires having clayey mud on site, but almost any kind of flowers will produce pollen for food. Consider the distance to pollen and the distance to potential toxins. Solitary bees typically forage within about 300' of their nest, in contrast to honey bees which may go up to 2 miles in search of forage if it's not abundant nearby, and bumblebees which have a range of up to 8 miles. Mason bees need holes about 5/16" diameter and 6" long. Reed, teasel, and wood trays are good options. You must be able to open it to clean it out or else pollen mites will infest it, so no bamboo, no drilled wood, no plastic. It should face southeast to catch morning sun.
For ground-nesting bees, leave vertical walls of dirt and brush piles in the area. For hole-nesting bees, just have holes in the area. Hive-nesting bees need a safe and sheltered space for their hives.
Dave then went into the life cycle of spring bees. They emerge in late March, then forage, mate, and build a nest during tree fruit season. They grow through June, are fully developed by July to August, and then hibernate from October to March.
Summer bees emerge and develop in early summer, they mate, forage, and nest during the summer garden season, lay eggs which grow as larva during the late summer, and finally start to hibernate as larva during the fall harvest from October to June.
Opening the tubes and harvesting the bees removes pests, and helps you to plan bee needs for next season. A monoculture of spring-pollinated fruit trees needs 1000 bees per acre. With a polyculture, 400 to 600 bees is plenty.
For winter storage, keep some cocoons and share some. You can store your bees in a fridge or just somewhere cold. Crown Bees offers a bee buyback program, so you can sell your extra.
For spring release, place them behind or on top of the nesting holes. Extend your pollination by releasing in waves. Don't hold them past May 1st.
While honey bees are often used for pollinators, our food system should rely on more than one bee. Also, mason bees can thrive in more adverse conditions.
For more info and to sign up for beemail, check out crownbees.com
Next Jacqueline Freeman presented on honey bees. The spirit of the hive is one of reverence, respect, gratitude, and generosity. The whole hive operates as a single entity. All parts of the hive and all bee tasks depend on each other for full function. There are maiden bees that care for the queen, feeder bees that forage for food, garbage bees that clean up and remove junk, scouts that find new forage sources and potential hive locations, defender bees that oust intruders, nursery bees that care for the eggs and young, and of course the queen herself who lays up to 1500 eggs a day.
Natural methods of beekeeping are based on an understanding of the superorganism as a unity. Honey bees want protection from weather, a defensible and well-ventilated space, the ability to keep the brood warm (96 degrees Fahrenheit,) storage for honey and pollen, and communication within the hive.
The beekeeper's tasks are to, firstly, do no harm, then provide nearby forage and water, protect from toxic chemicals, shelter from the wind, rain, and sun, maybe feed in hard winter, and harvest surplus honey. Minimize interference by leaving the brood nest alone and just carefully observing from outside instead.
Plastic foundations restrict cell size and disrupt the bees' vibrational communication system. If given the opportunity, bees will build their own combs and select the cell size that works best for them.
Hives need to be protected from weather and also secure from predators. Sometimes bees will take up residence in your house. Bee thankful that they are heating and defending your home for you.
Besides letting bees live in your house, which is obviously the ideal, you can also use more conventional hive styles. The Langstroth hive is designed to maximize honey output, but it has the potential to be heavy and it isn't ideal for the bees. The Warre hive is smaller, has a ventilated quilted top, requires less maintenance, and helps to maintain scent within the hive, but they may be harder to move. Top bar hives are easy to lift just 1 bar out at a time, and can be fitted with an observation window that is usually covered by wood but can be used to look inside with minimal intervention. Hives can also be carved out of hollowed-out trees, upright or on their sides. Regardless of the hive style, bees should be provided with an environment of love and appreciation.
Harvest surplus honey to keep hives from becoming honey-bound, and take this time to also rotate out old wax.
Spring is when bees tend to swarm, which is when the queen takes lots of bees out to colonize a new area but bequeaths the old hive to a young new queen. Catching feral swarms is ideal. Wild bees are locally adapted and strong. The next best option is to buy local bees. Bees from far away are less likely to be able to tolerate your specific local climatic conditions.
Sometimes the bees purchased from unknown sources may be hybridized with killer bees. While killer bee hybrids are prolific honey producers, they tend to be infamously aggressive.
Biodiversity = health. Plant multi-season blooms to provide bees with year-round forage. Borage, goldenrod, lemon balm, phacelia, and yellow clover are good nectar plants. Borage, lemon balm, hazelnut, hawthorne, lavender, elderberry, willow, oak, echium, coriander, mint, thyme, sunflowers, and asters are good for pollen. Honeysuckle, beestongue, and monkshood are unique in that they require the weight of a bee landing on them to open up and allow bee access. Flowering herbs that produce essential oils are like the bees' medicine cabinet.
Individual bees out foraging are specialized and focused on just one plant at a time. If they weren't, pollination wouldn't work as effectively. Plant pollen producers in clumps or have enough in broad areas so that bees can efficiently gather from them.
Bees need minerals; seaweed is a potential source, and stones, moss, and sticks are good to have near their watering stations as well. The watering hole is a bee demilitarized zone, where even species normally at odds will be at peace.
Montana is one of the best places in the world for honey production because of the prolific knapweed.
Yellowjackets, wasps, and hornets are carnivorous and territorial. A paper bag can be hung to look like a bald-faced hornet nest which will scare away other wasps, hornets, etc. that avoid already claimed territory. Umbrella wasps look similar to yellow jackets but are actually native pollinators that are so good at recognizing faces that they can remember humans who either left them alone or tried to get rid of them. Beeware the biodrones with advanced facial recognition.
More info at:
spiritbees.com
beeallies.com
friendlyhaven.com
No time for a full hands-on session this evening, but John brought some hardy kiwi plants and asked me if I wanted to plant them up on Ava! Of course, I was crazy ecstatic about this opportunity. Thanks John!
When I was looking for the perfect spot to put them in the ground, I saw a snake! I considered that a good sign, and so decided to plant the kiwi on the edge of the woods where they could climb up the fir trees.
After putting a couple in, I noticed a bee flying around while holding a leaf! I snapped a picture before it started digging into the side of the hill. Since Dave's presentation was earlier in the day, it was awesome to see an immediate real life example of what was perhaps a ground-nesting leafcutter bee!
Here! Have some more flowers you lovely permies!
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itty bitty white flowers
Very nice photo. This is a Woodland Star (Saxifrage family), probably Small-flowered Woodland Star, Lithophragma parviflorum (http://montana.plant-life.org/index.html).
Really excellent photo of an itty-bitty belly flower that is not much more than 1/8" in size. It is a Blue-eyed Mary (Figwort family, Scrophulariaceae), probably Collinsia parviflora (http://montana.plant-life.org/index.html).
Sometimes you gotta slow down and just enjoy watching nature be.
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blooming lovely
Looks like Saskatoon Serviceberry (Rose family, Rosaceae), Amelanchier alnifolia (http://montana.plant-life.org/index.html) that produces an edible blue berry that is said to be soft, sweet, and juicy.
Good heavens! What have you done! Here, try to fix it with this tiny ad:
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