Xeriscape Plant Profile: Armenian Speedwell

My posts have gotten fewer and farther between but I noticed a spike in views of Xeriscape Plant Profile: Rock Soapwort so I'm finally adding to what I'd planned as a series on xeric bee plants.

Armenian Speedwell is a little-known species of speedwell. I received mine as a seller's alternate from High Country Gardens, and for many years had no idea what it was other than a veronica of some sort. Veronica armena forms a low, thick carpet of soft lobed leaves, and its bright blue flowers are some of the earliest in my garden every year. Honeybees will take nectar from it but I've only ever seen native bees gathering its pollen. If snow storms haven't destroyed the blossoms, spring trees such as crabapples (also quite xeric) provide more abundant food, so honeybee sightings on V. armena (or even dandelions) are infrequent, making this ground cover perfect for edging walkways (i.e.: there's no fear of a bee flying up your pant leg).

Looking a little blue on a rare overcast day, Armenian Speedwell dukes it out with Dragon's Blood sedum and hens-'n-chicks among the stone steps on a south slope. It doesn't get any more challenging than this!

Extremely drought tolerant, this evergreen creeper grows happily with gravel mulch, between flagstones, on level or sloped ground, all without a care. After its profuse 3-week long bloom period in May, I like to deadhead it to tidy things up but it's not necessary. I often see birds picking at the spent flower stems, looking for nesting material.

A cool blue companion for Stachys byzantina.

leaf detail

flower detail

It may be a while before I post again. It's getting harder and harder to maintain a beekeeping blog without actually keeping bees. Damn anaphylaxis. So before I sign off, one last pearl of wisdom: Swallows = Swarming. When the swallows return to play in the streams of Denver metro traffic, swarm season in upon us. Next time you're stuck at an intersection, put down the phone, watch the swallows playfully fly and plan out your next hive inspection with swarm control in mind. TTFN

Pyramids, Checkerboards, Ladders and Wonky Top Bars

When we first set up the Warré hive, the two central top bars were thicker than spec but the colony was not in a condition for us to change them out. It was a small colony with extremely limited resources. The feeder fit on top so the wonky top bars were of little concern and besides, if all went well and the colony grew, eventually that top box would be harvested and the problem would be taken care of.

Well, of course, all did not go well, and the colony simply refused to grow into the bottom box. This happens with bees more often than one would think. For some reason despite being crowded, instead of building into another box some colonies simply swarm. The Warré hive did just that four times, making it glaringly obvious that beekeeper intervention was needed if the colony is to survive. Since they wouldn't move down, giving them a box to move up into made sense. But the two thick top bars complicated what should've been a simple reversing of hive bodies, so the colony ended up getting "major surgery."

Reversing Hive Bodies

Interpreting Langstroth to TBH

"Bees normally move upwards through the honey in the hive during winter. In early spring, the upper deep back of the hive is full of bees, new brood, and food. But the lower deep-hive body front of the hive is mostly empty. You can help matters by reversing the top and bottom deep-hive bodies occupied and unoccupied brood combs."

"This reversing procedure enables the bees to better distribute brood, honey, pollen, fresh nectar, and water. Reversing gives them more room to move upward grow, which is the direction that they always want to move." — from Beekeeping for Dummies

Photo Credit: Backyardhive.com 

Reversing is usually done to prevent swarming of overwintered colonies. While you're at it, take the opportunity to get rid of old blackened combs. With the dandelion flow about to start, it's time to:

• take out the oldest (and hopefully still broodless) combs near the front of the hive
• push the brood nest forward
• place empties (or fresh top-bars to build on) in the back.

In effect, reversing hive bodies. How does this help with swarming, you ask? It's supposed to remove any perception of being crowded by giving the bees space ahead. In a Langstroth hive the bees have been moving up all Winter, but in a topbar hive they've been moving backwards. So that's where we want to give them room to grow. We can certainly just leave them be, and they'll likely just reoccupy the empty combs they left behind, but we do have a 2-year old queen to consider. Colonies with older queens are more likely to swarm. Giving the colony topbars that need to be built out also helps suppress the swarm urge by distracting them with busy work. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. We shall see...

Supering a Top Bar Hive

The bees were beginning to beard, which means A) they're hot and/or B) they're crowded. Hot is a given. Looking in the window, crowded is a given.

I hadn't really thought about it when I bought the Survivor stock, being interested in that particular aspect only, but these bees came from a guy who sells honey for a living. So of course these bees are honey producers. In the State of the Hive picture you can see all the honey combs, braced to the window.

The bees haven't constructed any swarm cells, that we can see, and we don't want them to feel crowded lest they start thinking about it. It's been way too hot to harvest honey though, and the forecast isn't conducive to waiting, so we decided to super the TBH.