The Buzz About Springtime Planning

In preparation for spring's awakening gardeners relish the arrival of our seed orders and begin to plan for their sprouting and planting out into the garden.

Plans are a great way to not waste a single square foot of growing space, laying out the various crops and scheduling their replacements as they mature later in the season to be ready for the warmer weather crops.

I am big on planning, whatever the project, I like to have a clear sequence in mind when I begin a project as often times something must be changed, 
moved or created before one can begin.

A well planned garden is much more likely to produce abundantly!

Such is the case with preparing for the keeping of bees

Now that you have ordered all your supplies...what else is there to do?

As the sun's rays begin to penetrate the cloud layer and the soil warms, it is also shedding it's rejuvenating warmth onto our insect friends who slowly emerge from their winter sleep and begin to venture out into the garden. 

As with all of us on waking the first course of action is to Break Our Fast.

(For myself, that usually consists of a large cup of coffee with honey and cream, cinnamon toast on the side!) 

For our insect friends, honey bees in particular, though they will be looking for nectar sources, their more immediately concern will be a water source.

This may not be entirely apparent when dreaming of nurturing your new hive and the delight of honey to come, but skip this step and there will be trouble ahead! 

Let us consider how to create the the Best Bee Watering Hole!

Step#1; Place a water source near the hive

If this step is neglected you may find your bees in the neighbors hot tub!
We can only imagine the conflicts that would create and then the battle of trying to convince those dear little foragers to alter their courses, well, have I mentioned how indifferent they are to mankind's intrusions? 

 Step #2; How to!

There are a few things to consider when setting up the water source; Bees do not like to get their feet wet! So a low, shallow basin of any design with stones that will allow them to remain above the water level but have cracks and crevices enough for them to unfurl their tongues into the water level is great. Even better is to plant pots of moss and nestle them beside and between the stones for both beauty and comfort for their watering time.

A simple plastic tray to act as the water reservoir filled with 4" plastic pots with mosses growing in them is actually a very functional and beautiful option.
Or you can create a beautiful water pond like the one above just for them!

Step #3; Let them Bee!

Use your imagination but be sure to put it is a place that won't temp other household pets to visit regularly, stinging cause pain and sadly kills the bee!

With these simple preparations done we are off to a great start, this is just the beginning, there is still more we can do to ensure the hive will survive and thrive....More on that next time!

And you thought Y2K was scary? Let's consider Y2B

We remember all too well the panic caused by the Y2K scare:

Laughable as it may seem in retrospect!

Though I am not asking you all to cash in your 401Ks (if anything is left of them!)! 
Or go completely Prepper; that is if you aren't already there.  
I understand that many of you are working your way toward a greater level of self sufficiency.

The thing is...

If we lose our B's the disaster will radically eclipse the Y2K scare! 

I'm referring of course to the humble Honey Bee

Granted they are not the only pollinator and in truth they are not even a Native American species (bet you didn't know that!)  

The Honey bee was brought from Europe with the early colonists. The Indigenous People, the Native American tribes, referred to the honey bee as 'the white man's stinging fly.'

Since that time the humble honey bee has woven itself into the fabric of our food sources to such an extent that without them we would loose most if not all ability to feed ourselves.

Our food crop production even with all the industrialization relies heavily on the efforts of the transient bee. 'Transient' not by choice but because the commercial bee keepers are forced to travel thousands of miles annually to supply enough pollinators to the various seasonal crops, from cranberries in Maine to almonds in the Central Valley of California and everything in between. Hauling our busy friends from coast to coast, occasionally overseas as well! 

Our food export economy is dependent on the services of the honey bee; most especially the almond industry. The US is the worlds leading supplier of almonds, therefore it is crucial to our national financial stability. 
Due to 'mono cropping' the local bee population has to move elsewhere during the non blooming season of the trees or they simply starve. 
In a very real respect mono cropped farming areas are bee deserts, they cannot survive.

We see endless fields of golden wheat; we hear our National Anthem!

The bees see a land barren of nectar, their only food source.

An example of 'mono cropping'

All this traveling stresses the hives, resulting in weaker bees which are then more susceptible to disease. Since bee keepers from all over the country reach these pollination destinations at the same season their bees rub shoulders and share whatever mite or virus as if one great 'Super Colony' thereby further weakening the individual hives and their individual colonies.
As a result over the past decade globally there has been a dramatic loss within the honey bee population. Bee keepers from every continent are taking drastic steps to restore and sustain the bee population with new regulations on the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Sadly the slowest to respond to this crisis is the United States of America.

Since there is no absolute answer as to the cause of this disaster known as 'Colony Collapse' I will not waste time pointing fingers, though systemic pesticides are a top contender in the lineup of evil doers, their manufacturers; Monsanto and Bayer are American based companies.

What I will say is that it is time to take action as individuals 

With the current fiscal climate in the US and globally the individual who seeks to extricate themselves from the industrialization of our food needs to give serious consideration to the plight of our pollinators.  

Consider keeping at the very least one hive for pollination and perhaps to sweeten the deal; a bit of honey.

Together we can make a difference! 

The answer is not for a few beekeepers to house hundreds or thousand of hives.

The answer is for hundreds of thousand individuals to house at least one hive.

Power is in the numbers.

Together we can avoid

Y2B

Beegin at the Beegining

Ever get an idea that just won't go away? One thought that keeps teasing at you?
I would venture to say that it's an inkling of your future, even perhaps a premonition of sorts.
There is always a choice to say yay or nay, but I believe it is a portent of what "may be" or "could be" seen as Your Mission "Should you choose to accept it!"
(Don't worry this blog will not self destruct in 10 seconds!)
For me there has been a constant buzzing in the back of my mind that has been drawing me forward into a new adventure; Bee Keeping.
It's a natural adjunct to garden keeping, as it were, though some apiarists would say it's more like 'Bee Having'! Since the little creatures are quite indifferent to the human being's intervention into their world, no matter how utterly dependent we are upon them for pollination.

Have you ever tried to contain a bee of any breed, brand or flavor?
They won't sit, roll over or beg! Within the bee keeping world it is said those who keep bees are 'chosen' to do so. You really must love caring for creatures who will sting if provoked, however it is amazing how truly gentle and intelligent is the Little Honey Bee!

Nearly as early as history was being recorded by man there was a noted fascination with the honey bee. Their unique and mysterious activity led to some rather bizarre misinterpretations of their activity, it wasn't until the late 16th Century that students of nature, professional or otherwise, arrived at an understanding of how the honey bee mated. The myths around this included some peculiar ideas such as the scented breath of the drone (male) bees inseminated the tiny eggs while at rest in their hexagonal waxen beds. However, the truth of the matter continues to fascinate until today.

One truly amazing belief which  persisted well into the early 19th Century was the idea that bees were able to be 'created' from the carcass of a dead oxen! Yep, a dead, decaying cow, if buried in just the right way, would give forth a swarm of bees.
(Uh, yeah, what you peeps been smokin'?)

There are many, and I may say, more reasonable ancient customs in which the ability to supply honey is equated with wealth and allowed the ancient Grecian legal society endless grief in attempting to resolve ownership of a hive. In India part of the wedding vows included a promise to supply honey!

Honey is equated with sensuality, pleasure and decadence!  The Biblical imagery of love depicted in King Solomon's song to his beloved often reference the sweetness of honey. Cupid's arrows were said to 'sting like a bee' in many traditional images cupid is shown with either a Bee Skep (hive) and/or suffering from bee stings himself.

Can you imagine if you'd never tasted anything sweeter then say an apple, to experience the wild pleasure of honey's thick golden ecstasy would be a life changing revelation. I feel certain it wouldn't take long for you to wish you too could own such a resource!

Well, here is the really crazy part; YOU CAN!

So the questions begs; Why don't you?

Is it that sense of mystique or possibly fear stopping you dead in your tracks?
Certainly access, lack of space, education or the that lack thereof, all can be asserted as reasonable arguments as to why bee keeping is so foreign to most citizens today, even those of us who are devoted to gardening and growing our own foods!
I am here to challenge each of you to stop and consider; Why don't I keep bees?

In my next few blog posts I will be sharing exactly Why you Should Keep Bees!

The good news is that there are a number of excellent resources available online and in a classroom format that can aid you in correcting this oversight. The libraries are chock full of books on the elusive and seductive bee, be it paperback or Kindle, Amazon can fill that void!

So let's get crackin'!

Because at this juncture in our history our Bee Friends really need a helping hand!

Every garden should include at least one hive; Who will join me?

 "As it goes with the bees so it goes with thee!"