Fuel for your bee smoker

Beekeepers often use smokers when working colonies.  We believe the smoke masks alarm pheromones that are released by guard bees thus reducing "the call to defend the colony". Also, maybe the bees think a forest fire is approaching as they will go to open cells and fill their stomach with honey making them less inclined to sting.  Whatever, the scientific answers may be, using smoke properly can result in a more pleasant hive inspection for the beekeeper and the bees with no or very little detrimental effects for the colony.  A variety of materials are used by beekeepers for fuel: commercial smoker fuel, burlap, wood shavings, pithy wood, paper, dried sumac seed heads etc.  For local beekeepers in my area (upstate South Carolina) dried pine needles are the fuel of choice.  They are free, easy to collect and produce a cool dry smoke.  I keep an old bucket with a hinged lid and periodically (after a few days with no rain) I will ride my ATV over in the woods and scratch up dry pine needles.  Don't dig down deep and get into the damp duff layer - just skim the dry ones from the top.  You will have great natural fuel for many hours among the bees.

Feed those bees.... if they need it

Some people say you should never feed your honeybees as they should be strong enough to take care of themselves.  I can appreciate that line of thinking..yet I realize the bees are not native to this area nor is it normal to have several families of honeybees living in such close proximity.

This year has not been good for beekeeping overall.  Too much cool weather during the spring and then rain, rain and more rain.  Despite the fact that I have watched my colonies, not taken off too much honey and actually fed a little - I still have a couple of colonies on the brink of starvation.  Large number of workers, healthy looking queen, very little brood  (some of which may have been eaten) and no honey stores.  So I feed feed feed now !

Giant Robber Fly

My bees seem to have so much to contend with, including predators !  I caught this Giant Robber Fly in action .  :(

Giant Robber Flies

So I am walking around with my Nikon.  Looking and investigating to see what plants the honeybees might be foraging on.  I see this remarkable site and take a picture.  Later to see that these are Giant Robber Flies.  And yes, they do eat honeybees and other insects.   I can appreciate their natural beauty and place in nature but it is probably good for them that I didn't realize at the time what they were... LOL

Planting to help bees and other pollinators..

You can brighten up your yard and help out the honeybees and other pollinators by planting flowers that provide pollen and/or nectar.  Even annuals can provide important food during dry periods.  It doesn't have to be acres of land - small plots can add to the diversity of food sources.

Sunny Flowers and Sunny Days

What a beautiful cool day today.  My "bee girls" were gathering pollen from the sunflowers I planted for them !  Pollen is used to feed baby bees, it is the bee's only source of protein.

Bringing in the harvest......NOT

So in early June, I work in the hot sweaty weather and put honey supers (boxes) on the bee hive in preparation for the coveted Sourwood Honey flow.  Today , here is it early August, I am back in the hot sweaty bee yard taking those boxes back off and yes they are still empty !  It has rained almost every day of the bloom period and for the first year ever, I will have 0 jars of sourwood honey.  Beekeeping ain't for sissies.

Bees have a great sense of smell.

After spending the morning working in the honey house extracting honey and filling buckets, I rinsed off my hands and arms and came into the house.  Going out on the front screen porch, I hear buzzing that gets louder and louder and realize that I have bees

buzzing around right outside the screen .  Sure enough, they could smell the honey left on my hands.  I think we fail to appreciate how powerful the sense of smell is in bees.