All A'Buzz- Pt. 3, Feeding the Bees

Feeding the bees? Don't the bees find what they need in the environment? Well, yes and no. It depends on the season. In our mild winters, on days above 56 degrees F, the bees will forage to see what is blooming nearby. In my garden I have Edgeworthia chrysantha opening in late January and blooming through mid-March.  See the pollen sacs on the bee's hind legs? Note the color. 

I have had some Edgeworthia blooming already in past years, but this year nary an open bloom. 

Also blooming in my garden during the winter months is the Flowering Apricot, Prunus mume 'Hokkai Bungo'. Today I thought that maybe I should buy and plant a couple more of these beauties. I love the dark pink blooms and the fragrance is cinnamon! When most of the tree is in bloom the fragrance is carried a good distance on the breeze. 

Today the whole tree was buzzing with bees! It was a warm winter day in South Carolina and the bees were taking advantage of getting out and collecting some pollen. 

As spring arrives more trees bloom. We have a lot of maples in the woods that bud early and the bees love them. A favorite tree is Tulip Poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera. I usually find these spent blooms on the ground as the trees are so tall. Over the growing season we have lots of flowering plants for the bees to enjoy.

Eryngium planum 'Blue Glitter' is a favorite for many pollinators. It reseeds a bit so I have it sprinkled throughout the garden.

Agastache 'Blue Boa' is always visited. 

The photo above is a native plant that I have welcomed into the garden. Pluchea camphorata has the scent of camphor when the leaves are crushed. I leave it to spread through the garden as it is a good deer deterrent. Note the color of the pollen - not the bright yellow as in the photo below!

Look at all the bees with their pollen sacs full of bright yellow pollen. 

In addition to nectar and pollen, the bees need fresh water. We have a lake behind the house, so filling watering stations isn't an urgent issue.  Bees use water in various ways. They use it to help cool the hive by putting a thin film of water across the brood and fanning it with their wings. They also use it to control the humidity of the hive. Water aides in the digestion of their food. Clean water is important to a healthy hive. There is a birdbath in our front yard that the bees frequent. 

But what about the times of year where there isn't anything blooming? A drought? A summer dearth? Many folks rely on the stores of honey that the bees have already put up. We didn't have a lot last year or the year before that because our bee population was still growing and the honey stores weren't that full. There are a few feeders that you can use to supplement food for the bees. The one that we have settled on is in the photo below. Charlie makes the solution with water and white cane sugar, similar to hummingbird food. The ratio for bees is 1:1, different than the hummingbird ratio of 4:1. The center of this feeder is open and the bees crawl up and over the center ridge, inside the screening. They are able to collect the sugar water and return to the boxes below.  

This is a good way to make sure the bees don't starve in the summer, but what about the winter? In the best case scenario the bees have honey stores to keep them through the winter. The first year we didn't collect any honey so there was a start of food for them over the winter. The second year we only collected four or five frames of honey so there were some frames of honey. More on collecting honey in a later post.

 To supplement in the winter we don't use the sugar water as it could freeze. We make sugar cakes or sugar fondant. It isn't like bakery fondant, recipe below. We put it in the hive and check every few weeks to see that there is still some sugar cake in the box. Making sure there is water in the winter is important as the bees use it to liquify the sugar cake in order to use it.  In the photo below you see an orange plug in the wooden frame. The wooden frame with the plug is a spacer. You need to create a bit of space for the sugar cake so the lid fits snug on the hives. 

I know there are folks who don't feed their bees and the bees do fine. We don't want our bees to starve so making sure there is supplemental food available is easy enough for us to do. Ask five beekeepers what they do to feed their bees and you will get five answers. None are wrong as long as the bees don't die.

Bee Fondant Sugar Cake

1part water to 4 parts sugar

1/4 tsp. vinegar for each pound of sugar

1/4 tsp. salt 

Bring to a boil and boil for three minutes covered. Remove lid and bring up to 234 degrees. Take off heat and let it cool to 200 degrees. Once it has reached 200 use a whisk or immersion blender until it turns cloudy white. Pour it on parchment paper in a pie plate or other heat proof container to cool. Once cool it can be placed on the hive. If you are not going to use it right away, a plastic bag in the freezer will keep it in good shape until you are ready for it. 

Stay tuned for more bee posts. 

©Copyright 2021 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

All A'Buzz- Pt. 2, More Equipment

There are some pieces of equipment that are in the 'nice to have' category and other items that are in the 'you really ought to have this' category. The item in the first photo is a nice to have item. A bee brush, a long soft bristled brush. We use it to sweep the bees away gently as we go about whatever it is that we need to do. You don't want to swat at the bees and get them excited (or angry). Gently sweeping them off the frame is a good way to get to business. Do you need a brush?  I put this one in the 'nice to have' group. Can you go about working the hives without one? Yes. 

This next photo shows both a queen excluder that was mentioned in the previous post and a smoker. Some people don't use an excluder, but we want to make sure that brood isn't laid in the honey supers. Can you do without? Yes, but it might be messy when it is time to extract honey. 

A smoker is used to calm the bees when you open the hive. I have not heard of anyone who does not use a smoker. It is in the 'you really ought to have' category. The smoke interrupts the alarm signal the bees send out that there is an intruder. You don't need a lot of smoke, but you also don't want the smoker to go out while you are doing something and need another puff. We use pine straw in the smoker, it produces a cool smoke, is readily available, and stays lit for a good while. We pump the bellows a few times at the front opening and also puff some smoke at the top as each box is opened.

Seen below is the inner lid. It is part of the hive box structure. It is placed on top of the hive box then the outer lid that has some sort of weather protection on the inner lid. On top of the outer lid you should place a large rock or brick to keep the lids in place. 

Not easily seen in the photo below but used each and every time we go into the hives- a hive tool. It is a flat metal tool that has a hook on one end and a chiseled edge on the other end. It falls into the 'you really ought to have' category. The chiseled end helps pry the boxes apart. Bees produce something called propolis. It is a resin type substance that the bees use to seal their frames and boxes together. There are some health benefits and propolis is something that some people save and use. I know no more about that but I can tell you it seals those hives tight. If you don't have a hive tool, it will be very hard to get the boxes apart and the frames out. The hooked end is good for assisting in lifting the frames out. 

In all the these photos you see Charlie's hands in leather gloves. I put gloves in the 'you really ought to have' category though there are people who work their hives with no protective gear on at all. More power to them. We don our protective gear spring, summer, and fall. Depending on what we are doing in the winter, we may or may not wear our gear. Winter time the bees are generally more docile and slow moving. 

I am including this photo below as a strong suggestion that one should wear good fitting gear. I had a veil that fitted over a garden hat. I thought it was a good enough fit. HAH!! Those little ladies got inside the veil. 

Shortly after that I bought my jacket with an attached hood. To me this is a 'you really ought to have' category. You see my gloves, they go up to above the elbow.  I also wear rubber boots that I tuck my pants into. Charlie does not, he has some straps that Velcro around his ankles to close the pant leg. You sure don't want to have a bee fly up your pantleg. I had some white cotton scrubs that I wear when I am gardening. Wearing white helps see ticks, I am a tick magnet! These white scrubs are big enough that I can pull them on over my shorts or jeans. A couple layers of pants keeps the bee's stinger away from your leg. 

Is this warm in the summer in South Carolina? Of course it is. We aren't out at the hives for long, but wearing this protective gear keeps us from getting stung. 

Stay tuned for more bee posts. 

©Copyright 2021 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

All A'Buzz -Pt. 1, A New Hobby

Some of you know that we, my husband Charlie and I, are now keeping beehives. Charlie started this venture in 2019 by taking the class on beekeeping in our area. I thought it would be just his hobby but I have been enjoying learning about the bees and helping take care of them. 

Toward the end of his class hives were ordered.

 

The common wisdom was to have at least two hives, as you can compare and evaluate each alone and against the other. If one is doing poorly but the other is fine, it is hive specific. So we got two. Placement was another decision to be made. We didn't want them near the front door or driveway because of foot traffic. Areas in the yard where our irrigation hits are also not a good idea. Rainfall is okay but sideways watering isn't the best. Our property includes a septic drainage field of a half acre, across the street from our one acre property. No one walks on the septic field and we only cut it once or twice a year, so the bees would be unbothered by mowing.

Hives should be elevated off the ground and level. Each hive is decorated a little differently so the bees know which is their home. In the photo above you see a level, cinderblocks and the hives. You can also see our house in the distance. The opening for the hives should face south. Good air circulation and sunshine are important for a healthy hive. There's a lot more to beekeeping than just getting honey!

The new bees have arrived - picked them up beginning of April. Timing for setting up a new hive is important- you need to know when the nectar flows start in your area and what is in bloom. Much of my gardening choices are for pollinators and hummingbirds. Well, bees need to have blooms that aren't long and tubular. Their flower shape is shallower or disc shaped. Gosh, I guess that means I need to get more plants!! I do want to do my part in helping our bees. The queen, brood and nurse bees were purchased from one of the bee club folks. They arrive in a special box called a Nuc box, short for nucleus, used to hive a small colony of bees.  In the photo below you see the Nuc boxes on top of the hives that will soon be home.

You can also see the foliage of some of the daffodils I planted a few years ago. There is plenty in the drain field to bloom throughout the season. There are some Rudbeckia planted by the birds, lots and lots of Asters of various species and plenty of Goldenrod to bloom through the fall. We are surrounded on three sides by forest and back up to the lake for fresh water drinking. The bees should be very happy. 

After allowing for the bees to settle in, we checked on them every so often. More eggs were laid, new bees were born.

You see an active frame, full of bees above. Photo below is capped brood and the white open cells are bee larva stage before getting capped- it goes from egg to larva to pupa to bee. A healthy growing hive. 

Some frames will have honey and brood but most of the honey stores are in another box. You can see the difference between the brood cells above honey cells below. Do you see the difference in color? 

When it comes to harvesting honey you don't want to take a frame of honey unless it is at least 80% capped. That which is not capped is not the correct water percentage to honey. Bees process the nectar from high water percentage down to under 18.6% water, then it is capped. 

One piece of the equipment that we use is called a queen excluder. The queen is larger than the worker bees and therefore cannot move through the excluder. The workers store the honey in honey supers- a box above the brood chamber. The queen is busy in the brood chamber laying eggs while the workers store most the nectar in the honey supers.

So here the hives sit, in our open drain field. Note the heavy brick on the top of each hive. We have raccoons, Opossum and other wildlife that we want to keep from opening our hives. If we were in an area with bear activity we would have more safe guards in place. 

Stay tuned for more updates about our venture into beekeeping. I will direct all questions to the resident beekeeping class graduate, I am but an assistant with a camera.

©Copyright 2021 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.