Cookbook

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Cooking for Bees

Candy Boards

Sugar Syrup

summer (light) syrup
winter (heavy) syrup

Solid & Semi-Solid Feed

fondant
sugar cakes
sugar for candy boards

Pollen Supplements

Supplement Patties

plain grease patties
wintergreen grease patties

Feeding Stimulants

Bee Stories
- Did the bees find their keeper?
  Early Thursday morning I received an e-mail from Katheryn, a resident of Covina, California. She wrote to ask if I would be willing to look ...
- A sting in winter
  The pain began slowly but rose to a searing crescendo. The heat was furious, like someone holding a flame to my thumb. I knew what ...
- A beekeeper's trip to Corvallis
  During the abyss of grade school, through mind-numbing months of long division, spelling, and the names of planets, I scrooched at my desk and stared ...
- A bee in the bra is worth a dozen anywhere else
  Seriously. I work with bees a lot. I get stung a lot. But from time to time a honey bee really freaks me out. Yesterday was ...
- Mischievous proliferous: the scoop on bee poop
  Okay, Mischievous proliferous is not an official name for anything, but it’s the name given to honey bees by my husband. It is loosely translated ...
- A tale of honey bees and barbecue sauce
  Yesterday was perfect for mixing up a big batch of barbecue sauce. A friend had just given me a jar of her newest creation and ...
- The dead hive that isn’t
  Saturday was a perfect day on the northwest coast. Rumor claims that all the elements come together only six days a year: warm enough to ...
- I love bees, but beekeeping? Not so much.
  Anyone who knows me knows I love bees. It's obvious. But I have moments when I wonder if I like beekeeping. Today, for example. I have ...
- Why I hate ants
  I grew up in rural Pennsylvania in a tiny town nestled below the Allegheny Mountains. I loved the place—the woods, the farmland, the mountains. And ...
- My bees have lost their sweet little minds
  This morning, after a week of advising everyone else to check on their bees, I decided I’d better do the same. I figured there would ...
- Mentoring the mentor
  Part 1: Bees behind bars My first opportunity to teach beekeeping occurred at a state prison. I had volunteered at the prison for several years as ...
- The Zen of bees
  I sit perched on the hive stand, leaning back against number one. It vibrates like a refrigerator, low and steady. Scent oozes thickly from the ...
- Thy neighbors' bees
  I'm sure you've heard all kinds of horror stories about beekeepers and their neighbors--usually threats, warnings, or fears of some type. Well, here's one I ...
- My worst beekeeping day ever
  The worst beekeeping day of my life had little to do with bees and everything to do with a spider. Cross spiders are everywhere in ...
- My husband made me do it
  It was a Sunday morning, exactly nine days after I split my top-bar hive with a Taranov board. I finished answering e-mails before I walked ...
- Are they worker bees, girls, or units?
  Writing a blog is fun, especially when readers write comments and e-mails. This morning I opened a message with an e-mail address I had seen ...
- That busy beehive smell
  What is the odor that so defines an industrious hive? It has to be a blend of beeswax, nectar, larvae, and pheromones--a mix overlaid with ...
- A day in the life: why do I do this?
  Why, oh, why do I keep bees? Yesterday was one of those days when I couldn’t remember. First of all it was totally wet outside. ...
- A bull in the beeyard
  I wanted to get some serious work done this morning, so I put my dog in the spare chicken yard—Hennery Eight, we call it—so he ...
- Gone, gone away
  When I analyze my beekeeping time—the hours I actually spend in the apiary—I estimate fully 40% is spent looking for my hive tool. You probably ...
- Bad-ant advice and the ascension of bees
  You have no idea how terrible I feel about the following turn of events. I feel remorse. I feel guilt. I feel like I should ...
- Cemetery honey
  One of the things I loved about growing up in small-town America was that the post office put out the mail twice a day—once in ...
- Messing about with beehives
  In “The Wind in the Willows” author Kenneth Grahame writes, “Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply ...
Plants that Attract Pollinators

Popular Garden Plants:

Basil (Ocimum)
Bee balm (Monardia)
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
Bluebeard (Caryopteris)
Borage (Borago)
Caltrop (Kallstroemia)
Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)
English Lavendar (Lavandula)
Escallonia (Escallonia)
Evening primrose (Oenothera)
Globe thistle (Echinops)
Hyssop (Hyssopus)
Licorice Mint (Agastache)
Marjoram (Origanum)
Mexican sunflower (Tithonia)
Milkweed (Asclepias)
Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (Cleome)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus)
Russian Sage (Perovskia)
Sage (Salvia)
Siberian squill (Scilla)
Wallflower (Erysimum)
Wild lilac (Ceanothus)
Zinnia (Zinnia)

Northwest Native Plants:

Aster (Aster)
California poppy (Eschscholzia)
Currant (Ribes)
Elder (Sambucus)
Fireweed (Epilobium)
Goldenrod (Solidago)
Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium)
Larkspur (Delphinium)
Lupine (Lupinus)
Madrone (Arbutus)
Mint (Mentha)
Oregon grape (Berberis)
Penstemon (Penstemon)
Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus)
Rhododendron (Rhododendron)
Saskatoon (Amalanchier)
Scorpion-weed (Phacelia)
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos)
Stonecrop (Sedum)
Sunflower (Helianthus)
Wild buckwheat (Eriogonum)
Willow (Salix)
Yarrow (Achillea)

Honey Bee Suite

A Better Way to Bee

Cooking for Bees