I'd love to get some guineas. But I don't think my local coyote population would have any problems catching them =(. I'd like to turn my peacocks loose, but same problem.
No bees in sight
coyotes do catch guineas, I have a pond customer with a few, she loses one now and then. But except for coyotes or cars not much else can catch them. chickens are reputed not to eat bees, but to help by eating shb and other insects under the hives, so I've moved a couple of older hens to my bee yard. Will see.
Terri, think twice about getting guineas. Unless you are hearing-impaired and so are your neighbors! LOL
Actually that hearing stuff, I agree with....lol
We have 2 left and they arent getting replaced. Lol The raccoons love them and catch them at night while they are sleeping. But we have had 30 but they are so loud. Not much seems to bother the peacocks. But NONE of them are allowed in my garden even tho they fly in ever so often. Lol
They flew in and can't find their way out! I'm thinking of letting them in the garden to rid it of stink bugs. Hope they don't eat the tomatoes. I read somewhere that said they won't bother your plants but when a couple flew in they shredded my snow peas bare.
I have found that any ground bird is only distructive in the garden. I wouldn't risk it. That's just me. I let the gate open when nothing is planted but the peacocks have even distroyed plants that were in pots.
chickens are good at eating bugs, but I caused much ROFL when I asked whether they could eat tomatoes, They will eat the tomatoes, the vines, the spinach, the swisschard and pretty much any green plant in their path except carrots or wild carrots, LOL.
I wouldn't trust a guinea in my garden either.
Geese for gardens, not other birds. Ducks usually eat by sifting mud and going after worms and snails...Hummingbirds hit very early in the morning and later in the evening when flowers close...unless you are in a lane...from Hempstead during our RU at Rouxcrews hm last year..
Peacocks destroy stuff with their tails just by turning around.
Chickens don't like okras. I have one customer who grew nothing but okras and zucchinis. Every other day he would show up with bags of them. At first we were delighted, then we literary run to the back and hide. To spare his feelings I thank him and told him how delicious they are and of course, my co-workers dump theirs on me. What do I do with them? Throw them to the chickens! They will eat the zucchinis but left the okras alone. Bless his heart, next time he comes in I'm gonna tell him how much I adore tomatoes.
article :
Fewer bees in US a threat
to world's almond supply
Associated Press
Posted on February 17, 2013 at 11:02 AM
Updated Monday, Feb 18 at 5:01 PM
TURLOCK, California (AP) — In an almond orchard
in California's Central Valley, bee inspector Neil
Trent pried open a buzzing hive and pulled out
a frame to see if it was at least two-thirds covered
with bees.
Trent has hopped from orchard to orchard this month,
making sure enough bees were in each hive provided
by beekeepers. Not enough bees covering a frame
indicates an unhealthy hive — and fewer working
bees to pollinate the almond bloom, which starts next
week across hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares)
stretching from Red Bluff to Bakersfield.
"The bloom will come and go quickly," said Trent,
who works for the Bakersfield-based bee broker
Scientific Ag Co. "The question is: Will the almond
seeds get set? It depends if you have enough of a
workforce of bees."
That has growers concerned as nomadic beekeepers
from across the country converge on the state with
their semi-trucks, delivering billions of bees to the
orchards for the annual pollination. Most almond trees
depend on bees to transfer pollen from the flower of
one tree variety to the flower of another variety before
fertilization, which leads to the development of seeds.
It's a daunting task: California's orchards provide
about 80 percent of the global almond supply. And
with almond acreage increasing steadily in recent
years, the bees must now pollinate 760,000 acres
(307,500 hectares) of trees. The number of bees
needed is expected to increase as almond demand
grows and orchards continue to expand.
Already, more than half of the country's honeybees
are brought to California at the end of February for
almond pollination, which requires about 1.5 million
hives from out of state, and another 500,000 from
elsewhere in the state. Honeybees are preferred for
commercial-scale pollination, because they are social,
build larger colonies than other bees, and their hives
can easily be moved.
Bee brokers, beekeepers and almond growers around
the state say there's a shortage of healthy honeybees
for this year's pollination, especially after colony collapse
disorder took a higher toll this winter. The disorder, in
which honey bees suddenly disappear or die, wipes
out thousands of colonies each year.
The shortage has some growers scrambling for
bees — even sub-performers — as trees are about
to bloom, driving up bee prices again this year, to
an all-time high of more than $200 per colony.
"There's definitely a shortage of strong bee colonies,"
said Joe Traynor, owner of Scientific Ag, which c
onnects growers with beekeepers. "There is a problem
covering all the acres of almonds in the state."
Since it was recognized in 2006, colony collapse
disorder has destroyed colonies at a rate of about
30 percent a year, according to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. Before that, losses were about
15 percent a year from pests and diseases. No one
has determined its cause, but most researchers point
to a combination of factors, including pesticide
contamination, poor nutrition and bee diseases.
This year, experts say, the die-off has been as high
as 40 to 50 percent for some beekeepers.
"We have smaller populations in the hives and higher
winter losses," said Eric Mussen, a bee specialist at
the entomology department of University of California,
Davis. "Bees across the country are not in as good
a shape as last year. When you stress them far enough,
the bees just give in."
This year, Mussen said, many bees did not get enough
nutrition because a Midwest drought reduced forage.
Conversion of pasture land to corn production for
ethanol also reduced the number of flowers producing
nectar.
To compensate for forage loss, beekeepers fed bees
more high-fructose corn syrup and other supplements.
But such substitutes don't provide all the nutrients
pollen does, Mussen said. Malnourished bees are
more susceptible to diseases.
Lance Sundberg, a beekeeper who hauled his hives
for almond pollination from Columbus, Montana, lost
40 percent of his bees this winter due to the drought
and mite problems.
"You have to buy bees elsewhere to pick up your l
osses, and not everything we have remaining after
the loss is very strong," said Sundberg. "I had a tough
time fulfilling my obligations to all the growers."
But at least he still has bees, Sundberg said. Some
colleagues were not as lucky: they lost 75 percent
or even 99 percent.
Traynor, the bee broker, said he's been fielding phone
calls from desperate beekeepers and growers who are
short several thousand colonies — but he has no more
good bees to offer them. The shortage will only get
worse in the future, he said, as almond acreage grows.
Having strong hives is critical, Traynor said, especially
during rainy seasons, because bees have a short
period of flight time when it's dry enough to pollinate.
Fewer bees may not be able to reach all the blooms
in time.
In recent years, the Almond Board of California, which
represents more than 6,000 growers, has poured
$1.4 million into bee health research. The group also
worked on alternatives to reduce growers' reliance on
honeybees, said Bob Curtis, associate director of
agricultural affairs.
One is the so-called "self-compatible" almond tree,
which can set nuts using pollen transferred among
its own flowers, thereby needing fewer bees.
The group also is urging growers to plant forage to
help sustain bees before and after almond pollination.
And it's exploring using blue orchard bees, which are
solitary bees that do not live in hives but nest in small
cavities, to augment the honeybee workforce.
But building up those alternatives will take time.
"It's tenuous right now," Curtis said. "We've got fewer
bees. And if something goes wrong with the weather,
some growers could be in trouble."
yup. and then there are those nasty neonicotonid pesticides, to spray on crops or used to coat corn seed so the planting dust and the corn pollen kill bees too. Any systemic pesticide can harm bees, but the neonics seem to affect a bees ability to find its way home. I don't have that problem but the only gardens within flight range of my bees are mine and my neighbor's and he has a hive too, so we don't use a lot of pesticides. My neighbor the rose gardener probably uses some, but bees aren't big fans of roses, only when they are truly desperate will they mess with them.