Aside from a spelling variation of a certain culinary dish, the modern use of “poppycosh” is the description of a random shout of joy.  Why Pollinator Poppycosh?  It’s that time of year to celebrate pollinators (and it’s fun to say)!  National Pollinator Week is June 20 – 26, 2011.

A pollinator by definition is any sort of animal that carries pollen from one seed plant to another, unwittingly aiding the plant in its reproduction.  Most pollinators do this in the process of feeding off of the nectar of the plant.  This busy process has resounding effects.  The pollinated blossoms mature to fruits that feed wildlife and people and insure the genetic diversity on our planet.

Here at the IMA, our 152 acre campus is filled with gardens of diverse plantings.  Not only does this create a year-round experience for our visitors, but it provides a lush habitat for pollinators.  The IMA’s Horticulture staff has also purposefully introduced pollinators on the grounds of the museum.  If you’re a follower of Irvin Etienne’s blogs, you’ve probably read about our honey bees.  It’s been quite the experience for us as we learn to care for and manage the hive properly!

A healthy hive of honey bees can house upwards of 40,000 – 80,000 bees at one time.  About 98% of those thousands of bees are worker bees; the ones out each day working in our gardens.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

It has become fairly common for bee colonies to die and this past winter we became one of the unfortunates to lose their colony. Reports from the diagnostic lab pointed towards varrao mites and Euorpean Foulbrood (bacterial disease), as the culprits. We were not totally shocked by the death as we had some concern about the health of the colony going into fall.

But did we let a little set-back like death of our colony slow down our determination to have a thriving colony in the gardens at the IMA? Oh no. We ordered some more bees. They came this week.

They arrive via US Postal Service:

A simple wood and wire screen box. Don’t fret that this was within a ventilated cardboard box. No postal employees were harmed.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

Congratulations from the Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog Team to Irvin, who was awarded a Garden Writers Association 2010 Silver Award of Achievement in the Electronic Media category for his informative, hilarious and tawdry writing on this blog. P.S Your photos are pretty good, too.

As I go about the gardens, I see the honey bees still hard at work gathering nectar and pollen from the late summer and fall flowers.

Soon asters will begin blooming and their flowers will work as hundreds of heliports with bees constantly landing, refueling, reloading, and lifting off all day long. The bees’ lives are lives of extreme order and hard work. Especially hard work. They really do work themselves to death. No time for retirement and its activities – meeting friends for coffee, speed walking in the mall, or wondering why the kids don’t come around more often (or being grateful they don’t). It’s just work til your wings fall off. Then you die. Not unlike those of us in public gardening.

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Filed under: Horticulture

Danny and I joined Manager of Horticulture, Chad Franer down at the IMA’s bee hives today to shoot some bee footage. Wow, I learned a lot about bees. Check out Irvin’s post here if you wanna know more about the IMA’s hives.

Danny filming Chad and the bees

Sweet.

Filed under: Horticulture

You may remember that in my last blog I reported the imminent arrival of our honeybees. They are here – the drones, the workers, and of course, Her Royal Majesty, the Queen. They are quite active already. I can see them flying in and out of the hive from my office window. Chad chose a spot along the old Interurban railroad line that is nice and sunny.

It’s also generally out of view to some degree and less likely to be disturbed by staff and visitors. The bees are not aggressive but if you mess with them they are defenders of their territory. The honey is so sweet but the stinger is so sharp.

Tuesday Chad did the first inspection of the hive. This requires a wee bit of prep. You don’t go in with street clothes, at least not the first time. Here’s Chad all suited up for the inspection. Notice the smoker at his feet. The smoke calms the bees somehow. Maybe that explains why so many humans are addicted to cigarettes.

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Filed under: Horticulture