CLOSE UP Video Interviews

Jeff Eckel, a beekeeper, was called to the Wyck Historic House and Garden because one the hives he maintains there had swarmed. The queen, likely after having laid eggs that could be nursed to raise a new queen, had emerged from a hive and flown to a low-hanging limb of a nearby apple tree, attracting what Eckel believes, based on its size, upwards of 12,000 worker bees. There they clung together in a large, bulgy triangular shaped clump. A halo of bees circled round.

Eckel placed an empty brood box directly below the hive, donned a beekeeper mask, then, almost nonchalantly, gently scraped the bees at the bottom of the triangle off with a large plant pot. Many toppled below onto the box but many were collected in the pot and Eckel dumped them with one deft shake onto the box. He repeated this a few times and afterwards put a cover with a hole on the top; bees could also continue to enter through a side entrance. The way the bees clung to the box and the way a mass of them on the ground began to start “marching”toward the box led him to believe that the queen was among them. There were still quite a number of bees on the limb and it could be the queen was still there or that the strong pheromone scent she had left on the limb kept many bees attracted to it. Eckel shook the limb vigorously several times causing more to drop down, pausing in between shakes and reassessing. He explained that he didn’t need to use smoke because the bees by nature are calm when they swarm. But after a couple surprise stings and a fair number still on the branch, he brought out a bee smoker and, still without a beekeeping suit, alternated misting and shaking most of the remaining ones down onto the box.

Eckel, who also works as a Pennsylvania beehive inspector describes honeybees as “agricultural livestock.” He was planning to take the new hive to another of the locations he maintains in the area. Left unattended, he said, the swarm might have conveniently but undesirably relocated itself to someone’s house.

As it was a farm club afternoon at Wyck, several volunteers, your correspondent among them, observed Eckel’s bee removal operation and Eckel cordially shared his knowledge about honeybee behavior, problems such as mites and colony collapse disorder, and the economics of beekeeping

This was the second time this season Eckel had been called to remove a swarm and, as it turned out, after this latest visit he would be called another two times to capture swarms.

To see Eckel collect the honeybee swarm, click here.

To see all the photos in the album, click here.

3-d paper crafts adorn a reference desk in

the Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Pa Library.

Teen librarian Kris DeLabio leads workshops for children in making these colorful eye-catching sculptures.

The figures are made by printing onto card stock individual patterns that she purchases or finds on websites like Pinterest. The stiff paper is then scored along the lines and the pieces are cut out then glued together to form the three dimensional shapes. DeLabio gave a peek inside a half-finished blue pumpkin to reveal the numbers printed inside each piece and on tab, attached. The number indicates when, in the sequence, the piece goes and the tab, where the subsequent piece gets attached.

In addition, DeLabio makes folded book art using old library books that have lived out their useful lives as reading material. She recycles them into fanned art through simple folds along many pages. A paper mouse book was keeping company with a hedgehog book at the time of your correspondent’s visit. DeLabio has also made more challenging ones such as a celtic knot and a birdhouse. And a vase she fashioned out of one such old book serves as a pen-holder in the library.

Watch video interview of librarian describing book and paper art projects here.

To save a rusted but sturdy pony driving cart from the dumpster, your correspondent and his spouse attached it to the back of our car and towed it home. A driving cart is meant for a leisure ride for two people drawn by a horse or pony. The retail value of a new one is upwards of $500. Luckily we were able to find it a new home. Lezlie Hiner is the founder of the acclaimed Work to Ride organization based at Chamonix Equestrian Center in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Work to Ride is an award winning horsemanship and polo program for urban youth. As long as they commit to the hard work of tending to the horses and doing stable chores such as mucking out stalls the kids can ride. Hiner plans to teach one of the program’s 33 horses how to drive the cart (after studying up herself) and doesn’t expect it to be too hard. She thinks it will be fun for the kids to take the cart out in Fairmount Park, once they get a seat attached, perhaps out along Kelly or West River Drive. She anticipates that all the kids will want a chance. Many years ago Hiner had a horse out at an old hog farm in Lafayette Hill, PA when polo-playing friends introduced her to the sport. The rest is history. After we loaded the cart into the bed of her pick-up truck, she tied it to the car’s frame with a slip knot, used in tethering horses. For your correspondent’s edification, she demonstrated it twice. “Got that?” At the time of publication, Work to Ride had posted a short video of the kids enjoying the cart- being pulled through the barn by one of them pedaling a bicycle! Watch interview here with founder of urban youth equestrian program about the pony cart.

As your correspondent was taking a break from some landscaping work at the Weavers Way Farm located at W.B. Saul Agricultural high school, Gail Koskela, a large animal science teacher at the school,l asked if I wanted to see a newborn baby ewe that had seen first light just 10 minutes ago! This was the fifth lamb born this season and Koskela said they were looking for pie-themed names for the baby since the first two lambs were born on March 14th (3/14 as in 3.14, an approximation of the constant Pi) Accordingly those two were named "Pi" and "R squared." The next two lambs were christened she "Chocolate Mousse" and "Lemon Meringue." Koskela says she may have assisted the ewe sooner than she needed to but this first time mother had been pushing for a little while and Koskela didn’t want her to be become exhausted. So as the baby's legs and head began to emerge, she held on with a little tension so the mom could push it out completely. Very shortly after birth, the baby got up on its legs. The mother started licking her clean and the two were baa-baa-ing back-and-forth as seen in the video. The breed of sheep raised at the farm is selected for their confirmation and meat traits not for their wool which, in this breed, grows very slowly. Classes in the fall typically are in charge of breeding season and the spring classes learn about lambing hands-on. But because of the COVID-19 quarantine, only a few Saul students have been physically able to work with the animals. Koskela gave a little plug for the school's 24-7 "Ewe Tube" channel where everyone can follow the sheep in action, such as it is, in the spacious new blue barn. See newborn lamb and mom and video interview here.

Amanda Miles of South Philadelphia tightens screws on a bird box while Dave Stehman of Conshohocken cleans it out on a Friends of the Wissahickon work day at Andorra Meadow. The previous day a large volunteer crew worked on the bird boxes at Houston Meadow. FOW Field Assistant Varian Bosch who was overseeing the projects and simultaneously training new crew leaders says the boxes are occupied by bluebirds, sparrows, swallows and wrens. Each box is numbered so the birds frequenting the meadows can be tracked from season to season. Watch video of volunteers maintaining bird boxes in the Wissahickon meadows.

Your correspondent came across well-known deer advocate Bridget Irons sitting on a bench along Forbidden Drive in the Wissahickon getting ready to take off on her constitutional. Irons has been fighting against the deer cull in the Wissahickon woods for many years now. She related that she had written to Philadelphia City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart back in April asking that the financial costs of the deer cull be disclosed. She was encouraged when she soon heard back from First Deputy Kellan White who was to look into the matter but now, four months later, she still hasn't heard back. (According to the Controller's Office on August 15, 2019, White was still gathering the information) Aside from the contentious issue of whether the damage to the forest caused by the deer browsing on the under-story vegetation justifies bringing in sharpshooters each winter, Irons believes that the public has a right to know how much money city government is spending on the deer cull program. Your correspondent suggested that she may be able to retain a sympathetic pro bono lawyer to help deliver the information the public likely has a right to know. For this photo, Irons obliged your correspondent by striking the signature arms-up-in-the-air pose of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. ADDENDUM: From the Chestnut Hill online edition of May 18, 2018, "After 20 years, once-controversial deer cull is now routine": " These yearly efforts usually cost the USDA and the Parks and Recreation about $40,000 a year, an increased rate since the program’s start in 1999, [Parks spokesperson Barry] Bessler said."

Watch video interview of deer advocate who is asking Philadelphia City Controller for information about the financial costs of culling deer in the Park."

Jonathan Shaw hunts with hawks and falcons from horseback at his 467 acre farm in Queenstown on the eastern shore of Maryland. At the World Horse Expo 2019 at the Farm Complex in Harrisburg, he had two prey birds, his horse and two assistants. His avian hunter is Geronimo, a gyrfalcon, which will hunt ducks and pigeons. His Harris Hawk goes for rabbits, squirrels and, he adds tongue in cheek, “small children.” Historically, Shaw says, falconers would ride horses because they could catch up with the falcon which otherwise would eat the falconer's dinner! The tradition didn't die out until the invention of the gun, the first of which was named after a sparrow hawk, a "musket." Shaw goes on to tell about all the now common expressions that come from falconry like "hoodwink", "under my thumb" and "wrapped around her little finger." Shaw's ideal horse is a pasofino because of its even gait. It won't jostle the falcon up and down when it's sitting on the falconer's glove before release. Prior, he had hunted with American Paint horses but when he was trotting around the farm his "hawk would think I was shaking a cocktail." Watch video interview of falconer describing how he hunts ducks and rabbits with his hawks and falcons while riding horseback."

A New Jersey van packed with fresh Atlantic seafood did a brisk business its first time out at the Chestnut Hill Farmers Market last Saturday. They plan to come every other week, alternating with the market they do in Bryn Mawr. Justin Hetrick introduced eager new customers and your correspondent to the fresh fish operation. "We are called Local130 Seafood [A large patriotic painting on the side of the van shouts it out] We are out of Asbury Park, New Jersey. The "130" stands for the amount of New Jersey coast line. All the fish that you see here today, with the exception of halibut which comes from New England, is coming right off the coast daily. Sea scallops out of Point Pleasant. You know Barnegat Light, Long Beach Island? We are Asbury Park, only 20 minutes from Point Pleasant and we can go the day they come in off the boat and get everything fresh that day. There’s a fleet of commercial boats that run out of there. Arguably, I think it’s the third largest port in New Jersey next to Barnegat Light and Cape May. They go out in all kinds of weather to catch us the fish that we need. We are pretty lucky and blessed to have that. Nothing here is ever frozen. Nothing that we sell in the shop is frozen. We pack it fresh and we put it on ice so it keeps the temperature nice and cold without ever actually freezing it. So it’s still soft to the touch. Here are some of the information cards that I didn’t put out yet - we have skate wings, the black sea bass, sea scallops, weakfish, fluke, A lot of people know it as flounder but we like to call it fluke. The only thing I don’t have a card for today is cod.” Watch video interview of fishmonger at Chestnut Hill farmers market in Philadelphia of fish caught fresh from Atlantic Ocean here.

Dr. Tom Fitzpatrick of Flourtown, a retired biochemist with the US Department of Agriculture, rode in this year’s Wissahickon Day Parade, which took place this past Sunday. For 10 years he rode a horse and for another 25 years. drove a horse carriage in the parade.The event commemorates when several hundred horse-people and their horses converged on the Wissahickon path in 1927 to successfully protest plans to open the route up to vehicular traffic. Fitzpatrick’s roots go deep. His mother was born at the nearby stable atop Forbidden Drive (now Northwestern Stables) owned by his grandfather in the 1890s. He owns horses and he heads the Philadelphia Saddle Club whose riders are regular parade participants. Although he rode in a friend’s wagon at this year’s parade, should one of his stalls open up, he might purchase a good driving horse. At 94 he says, “I got 10, 15 more good years.” Watch video of Wissahickon Day Horse Parade celebrating Forbidden Drive becoming closed to vehicle traffic and interview with old-timer Dr Tom Fitzpatrick

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Nancy Peter has ridden in the Wissahickon Day Parade on Forbidden Drive, a tradition dating back to 1927 when riders successfully protested a plan to allow cars on the path, but this was the first time she rode a horse of her own. Cheyenne is a spirited, 12 year old, 15 hand, quarter horse - paint mare who had been trained for Western reining competition. "She's the love of my life," Peter professes before quickly adding, "one of them." Peter has just published a memoir of her horseback riding "escapades" called "Twenty Horses". Cheyenne released a whinny when Peter obliged her to pose as they appear on the cover of the book. Watch video of horse memoir author ride her new mare and talk about the book of her horseback riding escapades.