Warm Winter Beekeeping Days

Watching one of my honeybee colonies during a warm Missouri winter day.

Warm Winter Beekeeping Days

Well first, this is a bit of an oxymoron. It's the middle of a Missouri winter; we shouldn't be having warm days to be beekeeping. Nevertheless, this has been a warmer than usual winter. One of our local weather forecasters said on the average, our temperatures this winter have been 10 degrees warmer than average, a fact that gives me pause as I think about all of my little fruit trees trying to set buds on the warm days that pop up in between the more cold, wintery ones.

On this particular day, I chose to set all of those worries aside and putter around my bees. Maybe puttering is not the best word to use, it was more like sitting back and relaxing while I watched them putter.

On warm winter days, bees house clean. Between dragging out dead bee bodies and taking cleansing flights, they also forage for food. Without any blooming flowers, I sprinkle a little pollen substitute on their hive entrances to give them something to pack back inside.

My honeybees were packing the pollen substitute I left at the entrance to their hive.

If you are new to beekeeping, this is why I suggest you carefully consider where you are placing your hives. Although it is tempting to place them as far away as possible, I prefer to have mine close so I have easy access to them and can see them from my house. I can't imagine not visiting my colonies every day, even in cold weather.

What is there to see? I check hive entrance reducers to make sure they are secure, and that the black wind break wrapping is still on tightly. I know, poor excuses, but I once had a telescoping top fly off. I still find solace in looking out of a window on a cold morning and seeing everything is safely covered up.

When I have the chance to be outside on a warm, sunny winter day, no need for an excuse. There is something quite special to be able to watch them at a time when both of us should be holed up inside our respective homes.

My favorite moment, when bees land on my foot so I can see them up close!

As I enjoyed the time in the sun, so did my bees. One stopped by to check out my old gardening shoes. Just as I was wondering what bees do when they don't expect to be out, I am sure she was wondering what I was doing wearing gardening shoes when I was not out gardening and planting more pollen sources for her.

Wonder what kind of waggle dance bees do to express an oxymoron. Maybe a backwards dance??

Charlotte

Candy Cane Bee Food

These peppermint candy canes were marked down after Christmas and priced at .54 cents a box.

Candy Cane Bee Food

"I read this somewhere" - a popular way some beekeepers start their latest tip or experiment. For me, it was something I read over the holidays from other beekeepers talking about how they help their bees through winter.

It's been a very odd winter in Missouri. Weather conditions have varied a lot, swinging some weeks from record high temperatures for the season to more typically cold, winter conditions. Over the weekend, a weather forecaster said our Missouri winter temperatures this year, on the average, has been 10 degrees higher. That explains why my bees, and some of my trees and shrubs, have been showing signs of new growth earlier than usual.

Most bee colonies don't die from cold, they die from humidity, pest and diseases, and starvation. Having lost a colony several winters ago to starvation, I decided that was not going to happen if there was something I could do about it.

This year, with a record warm winter,  my bee colonies have been out flying, using up their winter honey stores at a much faster rate than they have in the past. I have been giving them sugar patties I make to supplement food supplies, I started at Christmas, almost 2 months earlier than I usually feed them the extra food. I also read that peppermint candy canes make for good emergency food and picked up a box on sale.

It does make sense. Candy boards, another way to make winter bee food, are homemade candy, like candy canes. The peppermint is an essential oil from herbs, which bees love in their natural form. Some people also have told me peppermint oil is also a hive pest deterrent.

Okay, so I spoil my pets. And yes, that includes my honeybees.

Charlotte

Bring It, Winter!

Bring It, Winter!

I may be one of the few people you know who wants it to be cold again. It’s not for me, it’s for my honeybees.

Bees don’t hibernate. They cluster in a ball inside the hive, shivering to keep warm. That’s why they store honey, to give them carbohydrates over winter to generate heat. If they don’t have baby bees to keep warm, they keep the inside of the hive at around 70F. If they have the nursery going, they raise the temperature to 90F.

When outside temperatures go above 40F, bees leave the hive to relieve themselves.  With temperatures in the 60s, bees think it’s early spring and look for pollen to take back to the hive for food. The flying around and lack of nectar and pollen means they also consume more of their stored honey, 

Based on past winters, beekeepers make sure their hives have enough honey to get them through at least February. This will be a year when a lot of us will be way off estimating how much honey our bees needed.

On Christmas 2016, when the temperatures were in the 60s, my bees had already moved into the second story of their hive, a good month earlier than usual. They also had most of their honey consumed, so I gave them sugar cakes I make as supplemental food. I usually give them the sugar cakes early February but I didn’t want to risk them dying of starvation if cold weather ever returned and I couldn’t get into the hives to feed them.

The warmer temperatures have also meant my bees have been out foraging, looking for pollen. Their favorite spot has been my birdfeeders, where I have sunflower seeds, cracked corn and a dash of sand mixed together. It’s been fun watching and photographing bees burying themselves in the bird seed trying to find the cracked corn dust. My birds haven’t been too amused.

I have also been feeding my bees pollen substitute in small buckets on the ground under the bird feeders. The buckets have sticks inside so the bees can safely land, load up on pollen in their back leg pouches and carry it back to the hive.

The pollen substitute is a mixture of soybean flour, brewers yeast, milk powder, vitamin C and brewers yeast.

Just to make sure everyone was getting a supply, I also dabbed pollen substitute on the front of the hives, next to their little front doors.  When I first checked back a couple of hours later, it was all gone, carefully packed and carried into the hive so I just kept adding more.

If temperatures ever go below 40F, the bees will huddle again inside the hive and not eat as much honey.

On the other hand, having bees out and about hasn’t been so bad. I love having them around and they do a pretty good job of scaring squirrels out of my bird feeders.

Charlotte

What Is Beekeeping?

Saying on the side of a leading beekeeping supplier.

What is Beekeeping?

Beekeepers like to make the distinction between "bee have-rs" and "bee keep-rs." Some people who have bees don't do much with them and usually loose them within the first year. Those are considered people who "have" bees.

Beekeepers have more of a direct relationship with bees. Depending on why one keeps them, bees can contribute to a garden's pollination; provide honey, and supplement income with the sale of bees. Those three purposes require different approaches to the bees, which in part explains why when someone asks two beekeepers one question they may get 5 different answers.

To me, beekeeping is just that, inviting bees into my garden and having them as part of my happy garden ecosystem. I have honeybees and native bees, both sharing my hillside garden and adding to the diversity I encourage along with butterflies, beneficial insects, birds and other wildlife.

And I agree with the saying on the grey bag, it can become a lifestyle with delicious sweet rewards.

Charlotte

Bees On Sugar Too Early

Bees On Sugar Way Too Early

Don't get me wrong, there was a time in my life when a warm day in late December would have been a gift. Temperatures in the 60s, however, are not typical of late Missouri December weather, although temperatures above average seem the norm as we end 2016.

Those warmer temperatures are not good news for my compact fruit trees, which are showing buds already, nor are they good news for my honeybees. 

All of my bee colonies were tucked into their hives in October ready for winter with a supply of sugar cakes in their top feeding shims, extra food in addition to their 60-70 lbs of stored honey to get them through winter.

In the past, they would eat through their honey before reaching the extra sugar stores on top, usually sometime mid-February. I added the sugar cakes on top in case weather was too bad to get to them between now and February, when they might need the added supplies.

Imagine my surprise when I peeked under the hive lids on Christmas Day to find the colonies already at the top of the hives, not only starting to eat the extra sugar stores but obviously having been into the sugar cakes for some time by the pattern they had left on the sugar.

Bees have apparently been eating the sugar cakes for some time now.

The warmer fall temperatures have contributed to bees consuming their honey stores almost two months faster than normal. Bees usually cluster inside the hive, consuming the stored honey while they cluster and shiver to stay warm.

When temperatures outside are above 40F, bees consume more honey to fly around outside, depleting their winter honey stores. With temperatures closer to 60F, bees fly farther and consumer even more honey as they search for pollen and other food sources, further depleting available honey.

Looks like I will need to be making more sugar patties if these girls are going to make it through spring.

Come on, winter!

Charlotte

Winter Bee Sugar Cakes

I fill my bread pans up half full, then place them in cold oven to dry out until hard.

Winter Bee Sugar Cakes

It's December 2016 and temperatures continue setting record highs. It means I have had more time to work in the garden but so have my bees. As long as temperatures invite my honeybees out of their hives, at a time of year when there is not much in nature to eat, they are consuming the honey they originally stored to eat through cold weather.

I peeked under two hive lids a couple of days ago and two colony clusters had moved into the second box from the bottom. That's not good news, it means the bees have been eating the honey in the second box already and may not have enough to get through winter.

Several years ago I lost a colony to winter starvation and I vowed then I would not let that happen again.

I was thinking about making sugar candy boards this year, heated sugar that fills the top of the hive once made.. I even bought a candy thermometer, thinking I would try something new but no time for that, winter is moving in and I don't want to risk not having something to feed my bees before weather turns cold.

No problem, making my winter bee sugar cakes is easy. Here is my basic recipe:

Winter Bee Sugar Cakes

11 1/4 cups of sugar

7.5 ounces of water

1 tsp vinegar

Add vinegar to water, then pour water into sugar and mix until all sugar is moist.

Add vinegar to water, then add water to sugar. Mix. I used an old garden bucket and the largest wooden spoon I could find. The mixture should be moist but not wet.

Dry sugar cakes made in bread pans easily span the length of one of my bee hives.

I like to use bread pans because two sugar cakes span the length of my hives. Pre-used suet containers also work because they are square and make it easy to join them in the feeding shims I already have installed on top of my hives.

You can also use cake pans, pie tins, even the bottom of plastic storage containers. Once dry, they should pop out by turning them over.

I considered making sugar cakes in the feeding shims but bees don't go to the sides, they work their way up the center of the hive. Sugar cakes do help with hive moisture so it's helpful to have sugar boards and sugar cakes in a hive, if for no other reason.

For me, the smaller sugar cakes are easier because I can place the sugar cakes immediately over the cluster. The cluster is easy to find by placing one's hand over the feeding shim and feeling the heat the cluster generates.

With smaller sugar cakes, I can also more easily store any extras I have for later use.

If the mixture doesn't dry, remix adding a very little sugar at a time. Before you decide it's not working, wait, these can take 2-4 days to dry to a hard consistency depending on the humidity in your house.

Once dry, remove from container, turn the sugar cakes over and let the bottom side dry out. I leave them top side down for at least a couple of days.

Save any sugar chunks that fall off. You can re-use the sugar in spring sugar water. The lighter spring sugar syrup is a favorite of other pollinators including butterflies. 

Store in an airtight container and replace as needed.

Charlotte

A Gift of Honey

A gift of raw, strained honey from my bee buddy David. Thanks, David!

A Gift of Honey

One of the best gifts you can give a beekeeper is a bottle of honey, preferably from your own hives but a bottle of real honey nevertheless.

No two bottles of honey are the same, nor will they taste the same so giving honey is similar to gifting a bottle of wine. The soil terroir, what plants are available, weather conditions - all contribute to the unique taste of honey. It can also vary by time of year harvested and even by honey color.

As beekeeping friends, it's always a treat to have a honey jar gifted. My bee buddy David gave me a little honey bear of his 2016 honey harvest, raw strained honey with no other modifications. It's just like the bees made it.

The back of David's honey bear so that I will know where the honey came from - his apiary.

In 2015, I was part of a Missouri State Beekeepers Association team working successfully with Missouri's Legislature to update the state's honey bottling law. Previously, honey was lumped in with jams and jellies, requiring beekeepers to invest in $30,000 commercial kitchens to be able to bottle honey for sale.

With the changes in Missouri's honey bottling laws, beekeepers can now bottle the honey in their kitchens and add labels with the honey source prior to sales. No need to build, or use, commercial kitchens. As beekeepers, we are not making the honey, as one does with jams and jellies. All beekeepers are doing is bottling what bees have made.

Sorry, this bottle of honey is not for sale. It was a gift and I fully intend to enjoy it over cold winter days.

Thank you, David, and please thank your bees. This honey looks more like Grade A+!

Charlotte

Portable Observation Hive

One of Rolla Bee Club's students checks out a visiting observation hive full of bees.

Portable Observation Hive

There are a number of portable observation hives on the market. Most of the ones I have seen add one frame of bees to the visible area, leaving the rest of the colony behind. The challenge with that design is that the bees are separated from the queen and, within a short period of time, become agitated when they can't smell her pheromone. That means whatever is being observed is not regular behavior but stressed behavior.

Two of my beekeeping friends came up with this improved model. The observation hive is basically a nuc full of bees, or five frames of bees in a box that fits the frames. Four the frames are in the bottom box and the fifth frame is in the observation area.

The colony is intact and the bees are going about their business in a much more normal way.

One of the favorite beekeeping past times, trying to locate the queen.

When not in use as an observation hive, these bees can be left outside just as they are.

The handles on the sides make moving the observation hive box easier.

These observation hives are fun to watch.

We often have an observation hive at our spring and summer club meetings so anyone thinking about beekeeping can watch the bees up close.

Heck, even experienced beekeepers enjoy settling down in front of the observation hive and watching the bees!

Charlotte

I See Bees Everywhere....

This gift of Nestle hot cocoa includes a little bee as the source, how cute!

I See Bees Everywhere....

Ever since I started beekeeping in 2010, I see bees all around me. I don't mean my bees are always with me, although some tend to be, especially when I'm working in my garden. It's a new awareness I have to bee-related references, and items.

A friend recently gave me a gift of hot cocoa in a cute coffee-like mug. She picked the mug, she said, because she knew I was a gardener and loved flowers.

What a charming surprise to find the hot cocoa that accompanied the gift mug had a bee on it. When I mentioned the bee, she was also surprised, she said she had not even seen the bee when she selected the cocoa.

That's okay, I told her, the bee just makes it that much more special, don't you think?

Charlotte

Getting Bees Ready for Winter

Getting Bees Ready for Winter

It's been a record warm Missouri November 2016. Usually by now I have all of my hives tucked in for winter, all of my plants in my garden and my hot cocoa stash refreshed. I am behind on getting all three done.

When I heard the weather forecaster call for below freezing temperatures by the weekend, I decided I had to make getting my bees ready for winter a priority. I can't do a last inspection, my bees have their wood hives nicely sealed with propolis and I don't want to break those seals.

Instead, I removed the frames on the edges to peek down inside and make sure there was nothing obviously amiss. I also refreshed my small hive beetle traps so on those days when temperatures warm up again, hopefully I can catch some of these sub-Sahara Africa pests that earlier this year caused havoc with some of my colonies.

To get ready for winter, I also made sure all of their hive entrances were reduced. I will reduce the entrances even more in the next couple of days to one bee-width holes but right now, several bees can easily get in and out of the hives.

The feeding shim on top gives bees another entrance in case the bottom gets snow-covered and makes it easier for me to feed them mid-winter.

I also added my feeding shims to the top of the hives so that I can easily feed them if need be mid-winter.

The shims are about 2 inches wide with two little holes that give the hive an alternate entrance in case the bottom door is blocked with snow. I like to add the shims now so that when I need to feed them, I can do it quickly later.

I have one more step I will finish once the temperatures drop, I will wrap my hives in a black insulated material to help keep the wind from chilling the colony.

Hard to think about not seeing my bees now that cold weather is here. They are very much a part of my garden and the joy I feel when I am in it.

Charlotte

Honeybee Latte

Honeybee Latte

In case no one has said anything, keeping bees definitely changes one's perspective on life. In addition to the big picture shifts - realizing the role pollinators play on our planet - there are the little perspectives, too.

One of the more controversial is the actual word, "honeybee." As a beekeeper, I tend to focus on whenever I see the word, in this case on a menu of a local deli. But I also recall a very heated debate between two experienced beekeepers about whether the word is one word, as in honeybee, or two words - honey bees.

Since honeybees are the only bee in the world that produces enough honey to share, it makes sense that they would be called "honey bees." However, joining both words into one also makes sense.

The Oxford Dictionary, thankfully, says both spellings are acceptable.

Drink up!

Charlotte

Busy Bee Restaurant

Busy Bee Restaurant in Buffalo, New York courtesy of a friend on a road trip.

Busy Bee Restaurant

Once a beekeeper, one starts seeing bees everywhere. Or maybe it's more that now one is a beekeeper, one is more attuned to bees and beekeeping.

My friend Mark doesn't have that excuse but he does keep an eye out for bee-related items. This one is his largest one yet, a restaurant in Buffalo, New York with a charming bee theme, he came across during a recent road trip.

Inside the Busy Bee Restaurant in Buffalo, New York courtesy of my friend Mark, on a road trip.

Mark heads a local historical society so I suspect the older-looking building was part of the initial draw. The outside sign is also very enticing, a happy bee offering three meals breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Inside the restaurant, the theme continues with a variety of bee-related memorabilia. I like the bee in front of a skep over the lunch sign. Even though skeps aren't used any more in beekeeping, it is a popular symbol for beekeeping.

Looks like black and white articles about the restaurant, and possibly local beekeepers, are framed on the wall.

Now I will have to add this to my list of places to visit!

Have you been to the Busy Bee Restaurant in Buffalo, New York?

Charlotte

Butterflies Enjoy Bee Sugar Syrup, Too

Black swallowtail butterfly visits one of my bird baths hosting bees.

Butterflies Enjoy Bee Sugar Syrup, Too

When I have extra sugar water I feed hummingbirds, or even extra sugar syrup from feeding beginning bee colonies, I like to pour it into a bird bath so I can watch my bees.

Bees don't only carry nectar back to their hives, they will also collect sugar water. Although not as good as flower-produced nectar, sugar syrup gives bees the energy they need to keep going.

This sugar water is two parts water to one part sugar, the sugar syrup designed to encourage bees to store it for winter.

Although bees do enjoy sugar syrup in the summer, the goal of nectar and sugar syrup is to store it for winter consumption.

Black swallowtail butterflies also enjoy sugar water that attracts bees.

Butterflies don't store sugar syrup, they just enjoy what they find. I have both yellow and black swallowtail butterflies in my garden although I only see the black ones visiting the bee bar.

Honeybees share their bee bar of sugar water with black swallowtail butterflies in my garden.

This bee bar is a bird bath with rocks and sticks as safe landing spots for all visitors.

Do you see butterflies in your garden?

Charlotte

The Honey Makers Book by Gail Gibbons

This charming children's book easily explains the role of bees in our ecosystems.

The Honey Makers Book by Gail Gibbons

If you are looking for a bee book for a child, the Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons is an excellent choice.

The colorful paperback book has charming illustrations of bees and beekeeping. The explanations are simply clear, and the concepts cover the basics from the role of bees in pollination to the various places they live.

One of the pages in Gail Gibbons "The Honey Makers" showing the various bee homes.

Even if the gift recipient is young and can't read, the illustrations convey the relationship bees have to flowers.

When my brothers were growing up, they loved well-illustrated books and would make their own stories based on the drawings and pictures.

Our grandmother, who worked at a used book store in California, would send us wonderful books for Christmas gifts. After the furor of unwrapping presents, we would all settle down to leaf through books together, each one an invitation to a new place or adventure.

A forager bee visits a flower in Gail Gibbon's "The Honey Maker" color illustrations.

To further personalize, add a little jar of your honey and a gift card inviting the child to an apiary visit next spring. Children are the future of beekeeping. The earlier we can get them engaged, the better we will all "bee"!

Do you have a favorite children's beekeeping book?

Charlotte

Donated Beekeeping Books

Rolla Public Library Director Diana Watkins takes a peek at beekeeping books donated by Rolla Bee Club, and my bee buddy, David Draker.

Donated Beekeeping Books

One of the most frequently-asked questions I get, both locally and through Missouri State Beekeepers Association, where I serve as the answer lady, is how to get started in beekeeping.

The answer is, start attending local beekeeping club meetings and reading. Like any specialty, beekeeping has a language all of its own and to understand what experienced beekeepers are saying, it is helpful to know what the different parts of a hive, and bee, are called.

When I started beekeeping, I read everything I could get my hands on. I still read, and I have a pile of books ready for winter reading. The days of raising bees in a skep - a romantic idea that was deadly for bees - or placing a hive on the back forty and not worrying about it are gone, today bees have a lot of challenges. To be a good beekeeper, one must become an amateur biologist and stay on top of current research.

To that end, my bee buddy David Draker and I did an inventory of what beekeeping books were available at our local library. We then compared notes on what books we had each read, and liked, and sampled books recommended to us. 

After getting the suggestion that people wanted to have access to borrow beekeeping books, we worked with our local public library to donate a selection of our favorite beekeeping books, from a book for children about bees and how to build your own beekeeping equipment to our very own "go-to" book, the Beekeeper's Handbook:

The selection of beekeeping books that will soon be available on loan from Rolla Public Library.

The idea is for beekeepers to be able to sample a variety of beekeeping books and then decide which ones they need for their home library. If someone is keeping bees for honey, for example, they are going to have a different focus than someone keeping bees for pollination.

Having a variety of beekeeping books also introduces potential beekeepers to a range of advice and information, something they will find very prevalent when talking to beekeepers. The joke is ask three beekeepers a question and you will get five different answers. There's a good reason for that, it depends on why one is keeping bees but it can be confusing to beginning beekeepers.

Proceeds from our local club's book sales, and donations, paid for the books. The library will be adding a book plate on the front of each book marking our donation.

We hope these books will help beekeepers on their fascinating, and challenging, journey of keeping bees.

Do you have a favorite beekeeping book?

Charlotte

Burned Out Smoker

Burned Out Smoker

Even experienced beekeepers will tell you one of the hardest skills to develop as a beekeeper is keeping one's smoker going.

A smoker is a soup-can like shape with a lid and bellows attached to keep the small fire inside going as beekeepers inspect their hives. One theory is the smoke keeps bees busy gorging on honey to escape the hive. Another theory is that the smoke calms the bees. Regardless of theories, smoke does move bees out of an area.

I inherited a very old smoker when I started keeping bees in 2010. The smoker was part of several pieces of used equipment I purchased from a local commercial beekeeper. No skep, as I had initially thought I would get, but he did "throw in" the used smoker. Although the smoker had seen better days, I didn't have the heart to give it up. It was my first smoker, who doesn't think of their first one as being special!

Keeping the fire going inside the soup can is an art form. After trying a number of items, from pinecones and dry mulch to newspapers and twine, I found it worked best as long as I could use pine needles and had the patience to get it properly started.

Once a fire is taking off, it helps to tilt the smoker to one side and gently puff oxygen through it. Not too much, just enough to keep the fire going so smoke getd produced and some embers get formed at the bottom.

Recently I was cleaning out the old smoker and noticed that the little metal table at the bottom, which allows oxygen to circulate, has a hole burned through it. When it cooled off enough for me to remove it, the little circle also appeared to be loosing a couple of legs so soon the grate surface won't give the bottom of the smoker enough clearance for oxygen.

Guess it may be time to put a smoker on my Christmas list.

What do you use to keep your smoker going?

Charlotte

Bumbled Salem Bee Call

The caller said bees were nesting in the inside of her parked truck in Salem, Mo.

Bumbled Salem Bee Call

2016 was a busy year for swarm calls but not all of them were about honeybees.

This call was from a lady in Salem, Mo. who said her grandson and dog were repeatedly stung by honeybees the day before in her yard. They had contacted an exterminator but he had told them he couldn't kill the bees if they were honeybees so she needed someone to tell her what was doing the stinging.

My bee buddy David and I headed to Salem, swarm equipment in hand, as usual but not expecting to use it on this call. We usually quickly respond to calls for swarm removal so we keep our equipment handy. 

There were some tell-tale signs that these weren't honeybees. The report of repeated stings was a sure sign they might have wasps. If the exterminator wasn't following up, though, that suggested a further identification issue.

Once on site, we found a front lawn full of blooming white clover. We checked under the parked red truck and found several bumblebees flying out of the door hole. David also checked under the truck but no honeybees. 

After I checked the underside of the truck, David decided to do another check.

I followed several bumblebees around the garden and crawled under their wooden porch to find a couple of dozen bumblebees flying around the area under the deck. Bumblebees are usually ground nesters so we suggested to the homeowner that they move the truck, they may have parked it over a bumblebee nest.

Secondly, that they watch where the bumblebees are going in under the porch and ask for exterminator help.

These were definitely not honeybees and they were not swarming.

At least it was a pretty day for a country drive!

Have you noticed bumblebees in your garden?

Charlotte

Beekeeping Help Bounty

Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes from a beekeeping student's garden.

Beekeeping Help Bounty

One of the unexpected bonuses of lending beekeeping students a hand is how they show their appreciation.

In this case, the student was a Mom with a newborn, a 20-month old and an 11-year old at home, a full time job giving her time off to deliver her son, and a first year hive getting over-run by small hive beetles. Small hive beetles are an invasive species from sub-Sahara Africa that can take over even strong hives with their fast-growing larvae sliming honey frames. They look like little black ladybugs.

After texting Lisa recommendations on what to do about the frames with small hive beetle larvae, I headed out to her apiary today to determine if the Italian colony was going to make it.

Turns out she did a good job of removing small hive beetle larvae in her frames, they are now in her freezer. If she can find a queen to add, she may be able to have a bee colony to take into winter.

As I was leaving, she showed me where she would like to add a second hive next to her garden spot. Good location, I said, as I noticed the cucumber and tomato plants nestled in small islands of other greens.

When I was ready to leave, she handed me a bag with three freshly-picked cucumbers and a small bag of cherry tomatoes.

That's a delicious way to say thank you.

After checking Lisa Powell Story's hive to make sure all small hive beetles were under control.

Thank YOU, Lisa!

Charlotte

Following the Bees

Isn't this a sweet little painted bee?

Following the Bees

I had stopped by my bee buddy David's house to return something. Actually I was dropping off a six pack of beer someone at a club had recommended where I had recently lectured. I also had something that belonged to David but returning, and borrowing items from each other, is a regular habit. This was a visit just to bee chat, something we frequently do on each others decks. 

 We have been beekeeping and sharing our adventures, and equipment, for years.  David also happens to love beer so I was pretty confident he would quickly volunteer to give it a taste test. Besides being the darker beer David likes, this beer had a special ingredient - honey.

While waiting for David to come out, I saw several bee hive boxes neatly stacked up in his driveway. I recognized some pieces he had borrowed from me; then next to them, a couple of hive boxes from our mutual bee buddy Cheryl. 

For the record, Cheryl also likes beer.

Hard to miss one of her boxes, she had little bees painted on the side!

This hive box was painted by high school students in a local art class.

The charming paint job was by a local high school student art class. The honeybees are flying over a series of painted flowers, so pretty against the honey brown hive body color.

Yes, bees have colored the way I now see the world. I can't imagine not sharing adventures with wonderful beekeeping friends, brought into my life because I followed the bees.

And the beer?

This beer was available at our local Aldi's store in Rolla, Missouri.

David says the beer is "very good." He likes to follow the honey.

Charlotte

Providing Bees Water

Honeybees land in one of Bluebird Gardens bee baths with rocks and twigs.

Providing Bees Water

The sounds of summer include the sounds of bee wings beating 200 times per second, twice as fast as a hummingbird, as they move around a garden. Bees, like birds, need water to survive. Bees collect water to help cool off the hive as well as to mix to make bee food.

As temperatures in Missouri continue to set new records, making sure bees have a safe source of water is important.

Turn Bird Baths into Bee Baths

One way to provide bees water is to turn bird baths into bee baths. To make a bird bath safe for bees, add rocks and twigs where bees can safely land. Water levels also can be lower than for birds so the water can easily be changed every couple of days.

Make Plant Saucers Into Bee Bars

If you don't have a bird bath, take the saucer from under a pot and add rocks and sticks prior to adding water. Place the saucer away from main traffic paths so bees don't disturb walkers and walkers don't frighten bees and you have a nice bee bar.

Feed Water Inside Hives

One beekeeping friend puts glass jars with water covered by lids with holes inside hives to make sure bees have a ready water source.

Water, Water Everywhere

How are you providing bees water?

However you do it, just make sure your buzzing friends have a good source of water this summer!

Charlotte