#flowers#dearth#honeybees
We are finally out of July, the longest month for a beekeeper in Western PA. Despite the sunshine, the bees potentially face starvation - if the beekeeper overzealously harvested the spring honey and left the bees with insufficient stores, or for new colonies that are just building up and used much of spring honey for their energy needs as they built their comb. Feeding bees is common in July, when there is little flower forage to sustain them. This year, there was plenty of spring honey, so feeding was unnecessary in our area, but we know beekeepers who were not so fortunate.
Most non-beekeepers are puzzled by the practice of feeding bees, because they can see flowers blooming everywhere all summer long. Not all flowers produce nectar: many of the new hybrid varieties of coneflowers and bee balm, for instance, with double petals, do not produce nectar and are thus useless forage for bees. Many popular landscaping flowers lack nectar, so while there is an abundance of flowers, there is no food for bees. Daylilies are everywhere, but they aren't nectar sources for honeybees. Bees prefer simple flowers, such as the purple coneflower, and "weedy" native flowers that grow in ditches and uncut fields. Weather also plays an important role: in hot, dry weather, flowers adjust their nectar production accordingly, so a lack of water typically means a lack of nectar too. In our area, the natural forage and our own gardens can sustain three hives, but would be insufficient for 10, and the main reason an apiary cannot grow is often the lack of food for the bees (not the laziness of the beekeeper!).
Honeybees face many threats, and declining populations are due to a number of stresses including modern farming practices, chemicals, predators, and disease, but by far the greatest threat is a lack of forage. Want to help the bees? Plant trees, bushes, and flowers that produce nectar and pollen for three seasons. Fruiting trees and bushes like apples, pears (not the Callery Pear!), blueberries, lilac, strawberries, oak, maple, dandelions, wild honeysuckle and crocus are important early nectar and pollen sources in spring. Flowering herbs, such as thyme, oregano, sage, lavender, and coneflowers, hostas, rubeckia, thistle, alfalfa, clover, bee balm (not the fancy double petal varieties), coreopsis, Russian sage, salvia, mint varieties, summersweet (clethra), and daisies are great for the summer months, along with cucumbers, zucchini, and other squashes, For fall, the local bee favorite is goldenrod, followed by knotweed and boneset, "weedy" flowers found in fields and roadsides - another reason why you should allow the wildflowers to grow! Bees also like Japanese anemone, which blooms from late summer all the way into November. Pollinator seed packets designed for butterflies are also not always good for honeybees, who have short tongues and cannot get at nectar deep inside long flowers, or ones with complicated double petals. Our peonies are gorgeous, they produce nectar, but the bees can't use it because they physically cannot access it. The most difficult time of the year for the bees is indeed July, so planting flowers with nectar and pollen that bloom in July and August help the bees when they really need it!
We don't use pesticides, and we try to keep our bees close to home so that they won't bring home chemicals with their nectar or pollen. While lawns of pristine grass are now in vogue, back in the 1920s it was stylish to have clover in the lawn - and we have clover too. It smells so good when the entire lawn is in bloom!!! We like to go barefoot, but during clover season, we step carefully, because the lawn is full of bees busy collecting nectar. We used to pull "weeds" along the fence lines and along the lawn-forest interface of our yard, but no longer. Less work means forage for the bees and more time for us to enjoy nature. Sometimes, we go outside and we can hear the entire forest humming - and we smile. The ladies are out at work.
Disclaimers: Blog posts are opinions, not advice. One thing all beekeepers will agree on, is that if you ask 10 beekeepers what to do, you'll get 13 different answers. Beekeeping is alchemy, nature, and a bit of magic.
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