In this podcast I talk about bee swarm season on our little bee sanctuary and nursery. Our Warré hives, developed by Frenchman Émile Warré to allow bees to build comb naturally and as they see fit are sometimes referred to by conventional beekeepers as 'swarmy hives' because bees do tend to follow their natural pattern of swarming each spring if the hives are left to themselves.

There is an art and beauty to bees that we cannot really touch. We can sometimes perceive it, but it is beyond us, as we cannot quite imagine the unity consciousness they experience. Swarm season allows us to participate a little more directly in that experience...

The second topic today is seed snails. Practiced, perfected and tested by Farida Sober, this method of seed propagation may be ancient, no one really knows for sure. Wherever it comes from, it is fantastic at producing strong healthy seedlings, reducing work, inputs, time and effort and keeping things simple.

Best of all, it works far more reliably than seed trays, endless transplanting up and watering and caring for all those trays of pots.

If you don't know what they are, you definitely want to learn about them if you grow any seeds at all for your gardens. It is my sincere hope I can get Farida to have a conversation with me about them one day. This is my second year of using them, and I absolutely love them!

You can find Farida's guidebook on how to make and use them here. I was so happy to find it this year after not being able to locate it last year - and I'm very happy to have it. Great little guide full of useful information.

Searching online will get you hundreds of sites and people talking about it, but her guide is not easy to locate in all that noise.

https://seedspells.myshopify.com/