Fall Food for Pollinators

Labor Day is considered the unofficial end to summer. Yet here we are seemingly melting in heat and humidity! Fortunately, cooler days are on the horizon for us and nature. My bees have spent a lot of these hot days bearding, driven from their abodes by mite treatments and hot, humid conditions. When they are…

Milkweed: It’s Not Just for Monarchs

Many beekeepers are fond of watching the miracles of monarch development unfold alongside our honey bee colonies. Often recognized as a field weed of sorts, milkweed is a valuable food source to many pollinators. It is slow to emerge in spring, but once established, this native readily returns and multiplies. In our area, milkweed blooms…

Hello, Summer!

While June’s arrival signals the start of summer and all the delightful offerings we dream of in cold, dreary February, it also signals the dreaded end of the nectar flow here in Maryland. It’s been an interesting flow, one with heavy, prolonged rains, but also one with nectar stores now needing to be cured. Our…

April Showers Bring May Flowers

And the nectar flow!  The Maryland nectar flow relies upon tulip poplar, black locust and blackberry, all beginning to bloom as my scaled hive proves with steady increases of five to seven pounds each day last week.  As we revel in warm weather, watching our busy girls returning to the hives with full bellies of nectar…

Honey Bee Forage Sources in Maryland

We watched our girls visit early bloomers like winter aconite, crocus, and hellebores, grateful for these food sources while we wait for the warmer temperatures needed to wake up more pollen and nectar-rich plants.  April is now upon us with promises of rising temperatures, sunny skies and rain to help in the cause.  These warmer…

Vegetable Gardening for Honey Bees

These cold winter days don’t allow for much gardening time.   Like many of you, I’ve been considering the possibilities that spring planting offers lately, particularly as seed catalogs pile up and lure me into their pages with colorful spreads of summer’s bounty.  Last week, it was warm enough for bees to fly.  I went out…

Winter Bee Food Sources

As I write this just before Christmas, we’ve had snow three times already this winter. Cold enough for snow means honey bees are clustered deep within their hive bodies, diligently working to sustain their lineage via regulating temperature, caring for the queen and raising limited brood, all the while eating through their honey stores. The…

Blackberrypalooza

Patience.  It’s a virtue.  It’s just not one of my better traits. I planted three bare root, thornless blackberry bushes on the outside of my garden years ago.  Not much happened the first two years.  They grew, produced a lot of leaves and some berries, but nothing to write home about.  Somewhere along years three…

Honey Harvest 2017

Great things often come from small beginnings.  Such was the case with my honey harvest this year.  This honey harvest is one for the books.  You’ll recall the winter loss of my amazing blue queen who produced gentle, diligent bees that provided a wonderful honey harvest last year.  It was a sad affair for me,…

Water Sources for Bees

Summer in Maryland means stickiness.  This is not the same glorious stickiness we negotiate when we’re harvesting honey.  It’s much less desirable as the heat and humidity make us want another shower five minutes after getting out of one.  If it’s that hot for us, imagine how honey bees feel! All animals need hydration.  In…