Had an opportunity to inspect bee hives this week as the weather has been somewhat warmer and drier. All of the hives survived the winter....pretty mild this year.

If you look closely you can find the queen. She's much larger than the workers. Also, if you look into the cells under the bees, you can see some of the brood in different stages of development, from eggs, all the way up to several day old larvae. The bees only live about 6 - 8 weeks during the busy days of the summer, so the queen is busy laying eggs to re-populate the hive. She can lay up to 1200 eggs per day. (sometimes more)

Anyway....they aren't worried about the quarantine, just out flying and doing their thing.

Please don't use pesticides or herbicides if you don't have too.....and leave those pesky dandilions for the pollinators. If you see a swarm, please call a local beekeeper, or your local county cooperative extension office to arrage for their removal. The bees are not aggresive during swarming if left undisturbed, and can just be left alone while you wait for your local beekeeper to remove them. Your local police dispatcher can usually put you in touch with someone.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

Cool! Hope this is a good year for your honeybees. There's a lot of talk about colony collapse here in New England so good luck to the girls. I only use organic stuff in lawn due to small dogs and grandchildren. I'm trying to plant hummingbird friendly flowers and we have a perennial planted near our fence that flowers in late summer and bees love it. So I leave them alone while they enjoy it. I can never remember the name but I'll get back with it if my friend can remind me. Whoops, she forgot the name too! Maybe I'll take a picture tomorrow.. It's starting to come up thru the mulch now Linda

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It's Sedum!

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They love this

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I wish you the best of luck with your bees. I know a few beekeepers in my area of southeast Nebraska that have nearly given up on it.
When my wife and I bought our acreage 10 years ago, there were bees everywhere. Now we only see very few bees and we use no herbicides or pesticides, but the farmers around us still do.

Is that 4 separate hives ? Pretty cool. We need the pollinators. I try to let some things grow. Got some milkweed that I am nurturing now for butterflies.

They love sedum....easy to grow too. We can help them out by planting these in gardens and fencerows.

Here's a short list.....
Cosmos, Sunflower, Calendula, Marigold, Rudbekia, Lavender, Mint, Rosemary, Thyme, Borage, Sedum, Monarda, Cornflower (bachelor's button), Verbena, Snapdragon, Poppy.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

My garden is surrounded by blackberries, they keep the bees coming. Funny though, bumble bees seem to like tomato flowers more than honey bees. Can't wait to get going.

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No baby we aint

We only have two hives, both made the winter, looking strong! We try to stay “ au naturel”! Will feed the gals tomorrow, sugar bars with Essential Oils! memtb

No dandilions allowed but we do have some nice Sedum.

how old is sue bird

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

A friend of ours said raising them was pretty easy until that virus or whatever it was came around.


A farmer was at his roadside stand selling honey a lady pulls over and peruses the jars. She asks him, "Is this honey produced in a wholesome manner?" "Huh?", the famer says. "Is this honey produced under sanitary condition?" "HUH?", he asked. "IS THIS HONEY PRODUCED IN A CLEAN, SANITARY AND WHOLESOME MANNER?", She asked emphatically. "Lady," the farmer said, "Bee is bees!"

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

We’ve been planting “bee friendly” flower beds as well, Sedum being one of those flowers. We’re even researching trees that are very “bee friendly”! But, we have a few issues to deal with, so our choices are quite limited. We have quite a few “we’ll” below zero F mornings, and high alkaline soils to deal with. Just another of life’s challenges! memtb

Mid Jan. I planted a butterfly garden with whatever Mrs. Native selected at the nursery. Among the benefits is a steady stream of visits from the local bee population. They seem to like the purple pentas in the one pic and the yellow / deep orange whatsis in the foreground of the other.

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Bees just being bees.....cool

Give the government time.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

That's a beautiful sight, all those bees, the good they do is incalculable.