The bees have arrived!

After much preparation and anticipation our honeybees were finally ready to be picked up and transferred to their new home at the DHC. Simeon built a modified warré style observation hive with some gorgeous old growth wood from his building.

Wood and power sander.

Hive building in progress.

Amy tested out her antique bee smoker and discovered some newspaper from 1988.

This morning Simeon installed the hive at the garden and Simeon and Amy headed out to White Lake to pick up a healthy nuc of Michigan survivor bees. It was an adventure. There is no experience quite like an hour in a car with a slightly leaky nuc box. Some escapees were released along the way and several more had to be smoked out of the car upon reaching destination. But overall these ladies were undeniably friendly. And other than a frame of honeycomb that was stuck to the box the transition went rather smoothly. The bees are getting to know their new surroundings and cleaning out their old house. 

The upside of having a frame of honey fall apart... getting to taste some!

One straggler that didn't want to leave the car ended up in Ferndale and spent some time on Amy and Gabriel's flowering collards. 

Thanks for checking in. More updates soon as tomato planting time is drawing near. And as always we are more than happy to welcome helping hands. Contact detroitheirloomconservatory@gmail.com if you are interested.

Garden Progress Update April 7th

Our Sign looks much better with a planter full of strawberries and flanked by a stone wall

Well we have been making steady progress on the garden over the past couple weeks. Support from the North Corktown community has been overwhelming and we would like to thank all of our neighbors for their encouragement.

Progress on our programming area excavation as of mid-March

After breaking ground on March 10th, we have been putting in some serious hours shoveling dirt! We are nearly complete in excavating the first part of our amphitheater. In the next week or two we will be ready to begin installing our retaining wall, digging our teared seating area and grading the programming area. A couple weeks back we had the idea of grading the programming area so as to collect rainwater in a buried 55 gallon drum. A pipe will run from the bottom of the drum to a hand pump. Thus we will have a great water catchment system and reservoir.

a group of volunteers enjoying the beautiful day

Today we hosted 25 volunteers at the DHC. A coalition of Michigan State University Medical Students worked with local high school students to move excavated dirt, clean trash and prepare and lay a brick paver path. The volunteers were facilitated by Greening of Detroit. We also had a number of volunteers from the ranks of the DHC faithful. A huge thanks to everyone who came out today. We will announce our next volunteer day on our facebook page.

The programming area excavation in early April. It's much further along now!

As always we are looking for people who would like to get involved in the garden. In May we will start planting. Our 25 varieties of tomato seedlings are already 4 inches tall, but we need to make sure we have everything prepared for them. Please email us at DetroitHeirloomConservatory@gmail.com if you would like to help in our upcoming construction projects, or visit our volunteer page to get involved.

Volunteer Jesse Soltis helping to prepare our brick paver path

Best from NoCo (North Corktown)
-The Detroit Heirloom Conservatory Team