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We have a lot of different maples here in the Pacific Northwest, but by far the most inconspicuous in the summer is the vine maple, Acer cincinatum. Not very imposing, it grows to the size of a large shrub or a small tree. It often lives in the shady understory of a conifer forest, [...] The black locust tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, is famous for producing a fruity and fragrant honey that ranges from water white to lemon yellow to yellowish green. A batch of monofloral black locust honey with little cross-contamination from other flowers can be as clear as a glass jar. The honey is high in fructose so [...] A lot of people want to know what to plant for their honey bees, so they ask other beekeepers for a recommendation . . . and this is what happens. Let’s say the beekeeper asking the question lives in Nebraska. He gets several responses: one from South Carolina suggesting a plant named SC, one [...] I wasn’t paying much attention to Pandora last night until I heard that old Bob Dylan tune, “Tangled up in Blue.” Oddly, I didn’t think of the ’70s or the disparately sad lyrics. No, not me . . . I thought about blue pollen. How weird is that? Those who have been reading this [...] The bee bee tree, Tetradium daniellii, is favored by both bees and beekeepers because of its bloom time. In mid to late summer (July and August) when nectar is scarce, the bee bee tree produces masses of flat white flower clusters reminiscent of elderberry blooms. The flowers are small, fragrant, sometimes tinged with pink [...] When we think of bee forage, we usually think of vegetable plots, row crops, orchards, hedgerows, flower gardens, and meadows. But some of the best bee forage in the world comes in the form of trees—not only fruit trees—but trees like maple, chestnut, willow, basswood, locust, and alder. Some species provide only pollen, some [...] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prPuLF43jp8″>video
I love this little video from diagonally across the country because it proves I’m not hallucinating–honey bees really do like cedar pollen. The video, shot by Paul in Florida, compares nicely with my photo from here in western Washington. Bee collecting Alaska cedar [...] Since I wrote about bigleaf maple honey, several people have asked if other maple species produce honey. I dug around a bit and found that most maples are excellent producers of both nectar and pollen. However, they bloom very early in the spring–generally from February to April–and most of the time the weather is [...] Early each spring I’m on the lookout for a frame of bigleaf maple honey. It blooms before the honey supers are in place, so I rifle through the brood boxes, looking for that special treat. In anticipation of this event, I often put an empty frame at the edge of a few brood boxes [...] Scientists in Turkey and Iran recently discovered a tiny bee that uses flower petals to build nest capsules. The bee, Osmia avoseta, uses only the petals of Onobrychis viciifolia for this important work. I somehow missed this story, which was run by NPR on May 6, 2010. But it’s not too late to follow [...] |
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