See what Krista
Robb has to say about bees, ccd, and chemicals.
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What's going on in the bee
yard?
I was coming down off
of the mountain this fall after walking the dogs and saw this
phenomenon that had been hidden by the leaves previously. Apparently a
(quite large) swarm of bees had landed on a poplar tree around 75 feet
up and decided to stay. They built their nest and were still working
hard as winter approached. Bob (you all know Bob by now?) and his nephew
Dale came and got the bees. Unfortunately, I was not there to get
pictures. Dale scaled the tree with climbing equipment, tied a rope to
the branch, cut it and lowered it down to Bob. It was apparently just
about the right size to fit into a deep hive body. Yesterday Dale told
me that the bees were doing fine and that they were out and about during
that last little warm spell we had. By the way, for all you new
beekeepers out there, those yellow spots that suddenly appear all over
your vehicle on warm days....bee poop.
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Honey:
Usually I am able to collect two kinds of honey. Our early summer honey is
made up of a variety of nectar sources. The bees visit
locust, apple, blackberry, blueberry and all of the early blooms, but it
is the nectar of the poplar that gives our honey its dark, rich, heavy
flavor. This year, however, there was very little poplar bloom and the
daily rain made it hard for the bees to collect nectar.
We were delighted
to have gotten sourwood honey. The rainy weather let up and there was a
very nice sourwood bloom.
Sourwood is the signature honey of the Appalachians and the nectar flow
occurs from late June to mid August.
We use no
chemical treatments in our bee yard. Our honey is what is considered
"raw" - we do not heat and strain only lightly to remove impurities.
Honey in the grocery store is generally "dead," meaning it has been
over-heated and strained repeatedly. This kills the enzymes and removes
the good stuff found in honey.
To see what a
starved out hive looks like.
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