Charlotte's sweet beekeeping adventures at Bluebird Gardens
Well, not exactly.
One of the things I do before opening my hives is tuck my pants legs inside my socks. It helps to keep bugs form the garden out as well as bees.
After I'm done, I sometimes run errands and I don't always remember why people give me funny looks. I'm sure it's not for my fashion statement!
Charlotte
Can you see the little dark pink tongues lapping up water? Honeybees depend on water to make nectar that becomes honey.
They seem to prefer water with flavor.
I tend to find them hanging out in bird baths seeped with twigs and leaves. Must give the water a better bouquet...
Charlotte
When opening hives and using a smoker, it's best not to set the smoker on
a bale of hay.
Duh.
I was using the hay to give the hives a little winter cover. Not a bad idea, as long as I don't first set the whole place on fire.
Charlotte
Bees produce several waxy comb versions.
Comb for baby bees and honey storage measures five cells per inch.
Comb built to hatch drones, or male bees, are larger measuring four cells per inch, more the size of a ladybug.
When honey comb is damaged, bees build new comb in the larger cell size. I also find burr comb on the bottom of frames.
How do you suppose they know what size to build?
Charlotte
If there's one flower bees love, it's clover.
There are several varieties, including white clover and pink clover.
When pink clover is first in bloom, the little flower heads are brown with bees.
I've always loved having pink clover growing in my garden, even before I had bees. They are not the best cut flowers but they are one of the first flowers to turn green, signaling sspring has arrived.
Charlotte
Fall purple asters are a favorite pollen source of a number of native bees.
Furry bumblebees can often be found foraging along side honeybees.
Although they are among native bees that don't make honey, they still collect pollen as a food source.
They are also very cute to boot!
Charlotte
When I got my first two beehives, my bee supplier gave me this book on "First Lessons in Beekeeping." Although it's an older book, the principles of beekeeping are still the same.
I asked Don to sign it for me. His dedication reads:
"It's always exciting to get your first hives. Good luck!"
The book made it clear, it was going to take a kaleidoscope of information.
Charlotte
After Gertrude hive lost her queen, the poor hive struggled. Since it wasn't doing well, wax moths moved in.
When a hive is healthy, guard bees will make sure no wax moths get a foot hold.
It took several months of digging out wax moth larvae-filled comb and freezing frames to get rid of them. I gave the frozen wax moth larvae to my birds, they loved the special treat!
Charlotte
It's interesting to see what flowers bees visit every season. In fall, my honeybees were all over Autumn Sedum flowers.
Although bees prefer yellow and blue flowers, they don't seem picky when pollen starts to be scarce.
Charlotte
Carpenter bees are large, solitary bees. They build a nest inside wood structures like my deck.
You can distinguish a carpenter bee from a fuzzy bumblebee because carpenter bees have shiny back sides.
Carpenter bees are also among native wild bees that don't produce honey but they are just as important as pollinators, nature's match-makers.
Charlotte
This was the first time I ever spent an afternoon in my garden getting to know my honeybees up close.
After seeing them enjoy sugar water, I decided to try to hand feed them.
It only took them a few minutes to find my sugar-water filled hand.
It was the same sugar water I feed hummingbirds, four parts water to one part sugar.
I wasn't stung once.
Charlotte
Now don't go asking other beekeepers about their bee bars. This is a term I use to describe the sugar water feeding stations I have around my garden.
Using gravel and small rocks, I fill plant saucers with sugar water, then sit back and watch.
Bees like yellow and blue flowers but when it comes to getting a drink, the colors don't seem to matter. Looks like the buzzing crowd is having a good time, doesn't it?
Charlotte
Isn't this fun?
It's the new display at Route 66 Farmer's Market in Cuba, Missouri for Bluebird Gardens honey. Kelly Stroh does a nice job with her signs. The two top honey jars are by a local potter.
Drive into Cuba, MO and you'll see the farmer's market on the left, right after a car wash.
Open Fridays and Saturdays.
Charlotte
It's amazing to think something half an inch long and maybe 1/4 inch wide is responsible for every third bite we eat. Honeybees are small but very sophisticated.
Scientists continue to study how these tiny creatures live together in colonies of 40,000, dividing labor and easily adjusting to different chores when needed.
During their lifetime, they can produce food for new bees; wax comb where honey is stored; generate a wax-like substance from tree sap that wards off hive diseases, and royal jelly, which changes a bee into a queen. They also keep my garden growing by pollinating flowers, especially blue ones.
With honeybees, size really doesn't matter.
Charlotte
My honeybees are tiny so sometimes I see more details about how they work through close up photography.
Both honeybees and their cousins, wasps, pollinated my compact pear tree flowers spring 2010, the first time my pear tree produced fruit since it was planted in 1985.
By brushing against favorite flowers like bluebells, honeybees pick up pollen in their leg pouches. As they move from flower to flower, honeybees move pollen that triggers fruit production.
It's still amazing to me one third of all the food we eat is dependent on this little insect's travel schedule.
Charlotte
You would think a snowy winter would be a quiet time for beekeeping but it's a surprisingly busy time.
While my bees are keeping warm and eating stored honey, I'm getting ready for the next, relatively short honey producing season.
In Missouri, the season runs from May to July. Some high-producing hives may produce a second, much smaller honey crop in early fall.
One of my chores this winter is to make new supers with new frames. The supers will be added to the hive tops as extra honey storage room. Each hive needs to store around 70 lbs of honey to make it through winter. Once they get that much honey, anything extra is honey I can harvest without taking winter food away from the colony.
After glueing and nailing four super sides, I painted only the outside and started to fill them with brand new frames where bees will make wax comb and store honey. Only six more to go!
Charlotte
Before I ever had honeybees, I found this charming unfinished vintage crewel embroidered pink clover and honeybee sampler at an auction.
I have always loved pink clover, which has the three-lobed leaves and usually blooms from spring into summer.I try not to remove anything growing in my garden, even transplanting some that were getting trampled on during house repairs.
The sampler sat for years in my project basket until I had my first two bee hives. To celebrate, I decided to make a custom throw pillow out of it. I didn't change the sampler size, I just cut a complimentary green cotton fabric for a backing and stitched the two together inside out. Leaving a 4-inch opening, I turned it inside out, filled it with stuffing and hand-sewed the opening closed.
It now keeps my favorite chair company where I often sit to read books on, what else - honeybees!
Charlotte
One warm fall day I was taking garden pictures while feeding my honeybees sugar water. When I got back to wipe off excess "bee juice" where my fingers smeared the camera, bees had beat me to it.
My honeybees are a mix of Minnesota Hygienic Italians and Carniolans, bred locally to be disease-resistant, easy to handle and high honey producers. Some have solid black lower bodies; others like these two have a striped lower section and an upper thorax that appears to be fur covered.
I left bees cleaning up the camera. It took them about half an hour to remove every remaining drop of sugar water.
Charlotte
By using broken toothpicks for antenna, you can easily serve Hershey Hug Honeybees as finger food. After taking these to several events, however, I would recommend, in addition to toothpicks, pack them in mini cupcake papers. Some people don't know to pick them up by toothpicks so mini-cupcake papers make it easier to move them to a serving plate.
If you are using Hershey Hug Honeybees as cupcake, cake and pie embellishments, break a toothpick in half and insert in the bottom of the chocolate-covered cherry. Leave half the toothpick exposed. Then you can easily add the Hershey Hug Honeybees by inserting bees on left-over toothpick pieces and they won't fly off!
Nice little bee gift for any occasion.
Charlotte
I developed these for a garden club meeting. I was teaching basic beekeeping classes for them and thought a bee theme gift would be very appropriate.
To make: Remove papers from Hershey Hugs. Drain maraschino cherries on paper towels. Heat white chocolate in microwave covered dish in microwave until melted; 1.5-2 minutes on high. Every microwave heats differently so try it first in 30 second increments until you know how long it takes for your microwave.
Spread melted white chocolate on Hershey Hug bottom; add two almond slivers for wings. Allow to dry.
Stick maraschino cherry with a toothpick; dip in melted chocolate and place on wax paper. Place cookie sheet in refrigerator until cherries and chocolate are firm or wait 10-15 minutes for the chocolate to dry.
Spread more melted chocolate on Hershey Hug with almond slivers; attach flat side of chocolate-covered maraschino cherry to the flat end of Hershey Hug. Allow to dry.
Break toothpicks into 3 pieces; stick two through top for antenna. Toothpicks also work well as holders to pick up bees as finger food. Add two dots of black icing for eyes. You can also use melted dark chocolate dots for eyes. Allow to dry. Store in sealed container until serving.
People seem to love them, they tell me they are so cute, they don't want to eat them!
Charlotte
Beekeeping Information & Tips
