Charlotte's sweet beekeeping adventures at Bluebird Gardens
My bees were locally-raised and bred to be tame and good honey producers.
Although they are very tame, people still have some reticence to be around them so I use a garden flag to warn visitors they are approaching the apiary, or bee yard.
It took me a long time to find this little garden flag. For some reason, most artists draw bees as male.
As soon as I get an indelible marker, I'm adding long eyelashes so it looks more like a "she." Most bees are female.
Charlotte
Besides ants and a variety of bees, sugar water also attracts a variety of butterflies such as Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly. See the red dots on the butterfly's wing tips?
Beautiful butterfly, especially when sun reflects off of it.
Charlotte
This Missouri "Impatient Bumble Bee" made me laugh.
Doesn't she seem intent on breaking into the sugar water feeder to get a drink??
Charlotte
Bird feeders with sugar water attract more than just hummingbirds. Bees need food to maintain their busy honey-producing schedule.
One of my sugar water feeders was host to ants, sweat bees, honeybees, and one very large wild Missouri bumble bee, all at once.
Busy place!
Charlotte
When temperatures hit more than 90F, plants go into survival mode and stop producing pollen.
Bees, needing food, will look for alternative food sources including drinking sugar water from hummingbird bird feeders.
They are not particular about what kind of feeders just as long as they can reach the sugar water with their little tongues.
Charlotte
It's so sad when the queen bee is dead.
One of Missouri's 400 bee species is the carpenter bee.
Although a solitary species, carpenter bees are important because they pollinate the rest of plants that honeybees don't pollinate.
You can distinguish a carpenter bee from an "impatient bumble bee" by their glossy backside. A bumble bee is hairy.
I seem to have a number of carpenter bees working their way through my garden flowers. In photo, a carpenter bee visits bee balm, a butterfly favorite.
Charlotte
Honeybees are meticulous housekeepers. When a hive is healthy, the hive inside will have no debris of any kind. In photo, bees have carefully removed a medicated paper strip I added last fall.
Bees will also remove cardboard and unwanted guests such as small hive beetles, wax moths and any other unwelcome bugs.
Charlotte
When hive temperatures get too hot, worker honeybees inside push field-going bees outside to try to reduce the inside hive temperature.
Bees "hang out" outside the hive, forming a "beard." This is a good indication the hive needs to have the hive top cracked open to generate ventilation.
Charlotte
After one of my monthly gardening meetings, I found this flowering holly tree covered in honeybees.
I love this photo of one honeybee heading back into the holly tree.
Charlotte
One of Missouri's wonderful spring wildflowers are bright yellow and hardy. Black Mustard, a Eurasian import, grows all over mid-Missouri, especially roadsides and ditches, blooming almost straight from April to November.
A Mustard cousin, Yellow Rocket, also called Winter Cress, also grows all over mid-Missouri, blooming from April to June.
I have tried to move several of these wildflowers to my wildlife garden over the years, with little success so I was thrilled to find this plant at the bottom of one of my sets of garden stairs. Although the yellow flowers are similar, the unusual leaves of Yellow Rocket distinguish this plant from their Black Mustard cousin.
Yellow Rocket isn't a particularly good cut flower but I love the cheerfulness they bring into my spring garden, especially during the dreary, rainy season.
Honeybees like them, too!
Charlotte
Bees keep the hive inside at 90F since they're also managing a nursery.
To help bees keep the hive warm in winter, and to minimize intruders like mice, beekeepers close hive entrances with "entrance excluders." I also pop the excluder on if temperatures get too cold some spring nights.
Once danger of frost is over, the excluders are removed until fall. I also re-attach excluders when we have warnings of major storms and hail damage.
I lost about 1,000 bees the first year I had two hives due to hail hitting the hive entrance at an angle.
Charlotte
Bees will visit pollen sources within 2 miles radius of their hive.
Before setting up hives, make sure you know what's within those two miles. Access to high levels of pesticides will contribute to your bee colony's failure. Recent studies confirm exposure to nicotinoids disorient bees and may contribute to whole colonies disappearing in what's been generally called colony collapse disorder.
On the other hand, if you want to treat your bees to favorite sources of pollen, scientists have also determined bees prefer plants in yellow and blue tones, such as perennial Midnight Blue Salvia, which are long blooming and will re-bloom if spent blooms are removed.
One of my honeybees has found salvia planted close to the bee hive.
Charlotte
It would have helped if I had been a Girl Scout.
This was the hardest thing I had to learn, how to make a sustainable fire in basically a 16 oz soup can with a lid. The smoker helps a beekeeper distract bees long enough to safely access the hive.
To make a fire, I use dried orange peels as fire starters, then add dried twigs from around the yard. Once coals have developed, I add dried leaves to generate smoke.
Stories vary on what smoke does to bees, from making them panic and horde honey to just distracting them. Smoke is applied around them, not on bees.
I've also been known to apply smoke around my head. I wouldn't recommend it as a substitute for perfume.
Charlotte
Reading beekeeping books is a good way to familiarize yourself with beekeeping terms and equipment.
Beekeeping, like gardening, is as much an art as science. The more you know about the basics, the better you can be successful keeping your bees happy and healthy.
If you don't know what books to check out, start with the ones with photos. I also enjoy diaries of beekeepers; they give me a better perspective on the cycle of beekeeping.
Charlotte
It takes some finesse to work with honey. One of it's properties is that it's very sticky!
When cooking with honey, first spray utensils lightly with vegetable spray.
Allow to dry for a couple of minutes, then pour honey into it.
Vegetable spray will help honey slide smoothly from your measuring utensils and make clean-up easier.
Did you know it takes 12 bees their lifetime to make 1 teaspoon of honey?
Charlotte
One of the most wonderful scenes at a bee hive is the arrival of bees "packing pollen."
Bees will fly about 2 miles from the hive to find a pollen source. After getting their leg pouches full of pollen, bees will fly back to the hive and sometimes literally fall into the hive with their heavy baggage. Their pollen-filled legs are obvious as they slide into the hive entrance.
Once they lighten the load, they do a little waggle dance to communicate to other bees where they found pollen.
Pollen is the basic ingredient bees use to make honey.
Charlotte
You know you have your doctor's full attention when he walks into the examining room, glares - hands on hips - and declares "BEES???"
Well, not "B-E-E-S, " more like one itty bitty little angry honeybee; ok, maybe two, but nothing like a huge, gigantic, woman-eating swarm or anything. Scientists have now confirmed bees have feelings so I'm thinking this was one, very hot, and VERY surly little honeybee that stung me on my right cheek. I don't recommend it instead of Botox but hey, it does get rid of wrinkles. I was harvesting my second batch of honey, moving the most beautifully-full honey frames from the hive to outside my garage door. I had moved four of the six frames into the kitchen, leaving two frames of honey in an empty hive box outside. Make a note - NOT a good idea.
Honey dippers are designed to easily transfer honey without getting honey, well - over everything.
To use a honey dipper, dip the spiral end into honey and turn to coat. Move the dipper to where you want honey, then slowly twirl, allowing honey to drip.
Use honey dippers to drizzle honey over breads, fruit, salads, even tea.
Wash as you would a wooden spoon. Pat with a dish towel to fully dry; then allow to air dry.
Charlotte
Beekeeping Information & Tips
