Stella and I decided that while we'd like to harvest more honey this fall, we honestly had enough to cover our needs. We knew that the drought that had decimated our pastures had also dried up all the late summer flowers the bees needed to produce enough honey to carry them through the winter. It's a rule. No one goes hungry on either of our farms ;-).
Normally we'd remove the honey supers in the fall and extract the darker fall honey for our own use. This year we decided to set out most of those frames and let the bees come get the honey and carry it back into their stash - the two big lower boxes.
By setting the frames out in the open we knew that not just our bees would come get that honey, but that we'd probably get bees from all over. In all shapes, sizes and colors. We did. We figured if our bees were hungry, all the wild bees were too and wild bees are just as important.
Look closely - click to biggify. How many different bees can you find?
If a small sacrifice in honey will help them through the winter, we'll all bee happy.
Normally we'd remove the honey supers in the fall and extract the darker fall honey for our own use. This year we decided to set out most of those frames and let the bees come get the honey and carry it back into their stash - the two big lower boxes.
By setting the frames out in the open we knew that not just our bees would come get that honey, but that we'd probably get bees from all over. In all shapes, sizes and colors. We did. We figured if our bees were hungry, all the wild bees were too and wild bees are just as important.
Look closely - click to biggify. How many different bees can you find?
If a small sacrifice in honey will help them through the winter, we'll all bee happy.
14 comments:
Smart and generous!
Cool picture. My guess is four diffent bees.
An invesment in the future to bee sure..:-))
3 or 4?
I think just 4 in this picture and I think the yellow and black bee with his butt sticking up is just too cute! There were some really neat green bees, a red one, some really small ones and some bizarre looking wasps out too.
I counted four before I read your comment. I liked the bright yellow butt, too. You're such a good momma to all your creatures.
Thanks to your example, my nieces and I shared our picnic lunch with some bees yesterday - they got the grapes, we got the sandwiches.
I had read at some point, back when we had our bees, that setting out honey for them like that taught them to rob other hives where they might pick up disease, and that learning to rob also made them more agressive. Have you had experience with this, because I sure like the idea of what you did.
Once again, I like your bee-attitude ;-)
Yes, setting feed out can cause robbing, so you don't want set anything too close to a hive. I didn't really think about the disease issue. Hope we don't learn something the hard way :-/.
You did NOT just say we will all BEE happy. lol
okay... just happened upon your blog... and can i just say... DELIGHTFUL! i'm tossing around the idea of starting a small sheep farm myself. looking at babydolls. but NOT looking to make money. just love the animal. anyway, i just wanted to say hi and let you know how lovely your blog is. oh, and i graduation from lexington theological seminary... so i know the area well. and miss it everyday!
I always learn from you...always.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
I just saw two..but I am not a B expert..I think it is great to share..:)
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