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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 [...] The myth goes something like this: bees will not forage within a 25-foot radius of their hive because that is the “cleansing area”–or restroom, if you will. This is nonsense. The rumor probably arose when beekeepers watched their charges fly right past flowers within inches of the hive only to alight on something in [...] It’s hard to say why honey production is so unpredictable. One year you get oceans of the stuff—maybe 200 pounds or more of harvestable honey per hive. The next year you get nothing—not even enough for the bees. In truth, this variability is no different from any other crop, whether it be apples, tomatoes, [...] 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 [...] Down the hatch. Bumble bee on goldenrod. I have one little patch of goldenrod in front of my house, right next to the driveway. I protect it from pickup trucks and lawn mowers all summer long just so I can watch the bumble bees flock to it in late summer. This [...] This one surprised me. I’ve grown lovage for many years, but I usually cut it back before it flowers. This year I let it go. Yesterday I was amazed to count over forty honey bees on one plant. I had no idea they liked it so well. Lovage, Levisticum officinale, is in the same [...] Curlycup gumweed is a plant native to North America that attracts a variety of wild pollinators as well as honey bees. The name “gumweed” refers to the sticky, resinous material that is secreted from the flowers before they open. Gumweed was well-known to native North American tribes and used for a number of medicinal [...] After I wrote about floral fidelity and the purity of pollen baskets, I received this awesome photo by Chelsea at thehoneybeat.com. Look carefully and you will see the worker in the center of the photo has pollen baskets of two distinctly different colors. So how did this happen? I’ve tried to think this through, [...] This is a case of mistaken identity—I think—but it’s pervasive. I hear this at least once every year, and just recently one of the bee journals printed this statement, “Red clover (crimson clover) is generally considered poor bee forage.” The problem with that sentence is that the author couldn’t decide if he meant red [...] The hardy kiwi or “northern kiwi” (Actinidia arguta) is a vine that produces thousands of small, smooth-skinned kiwis about the size of large grapes. The plants are dioecious, meaning male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. I planted two of these about five years ago and they have gotten huge and very [...] |
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