LET BROOD REARING BEGIN!

Pollen covered beauty!

Pollen for honey bees is the staff of life. It signals the beginning of brood rearing. Brood is the tech talk for laying eggs and the feeding of the growing pupae in the hive. It is a very exciting time for those of us that love the bees.

If you look around your yard you may not recognize those plants that are in bloom and giving this precious material to the honeybee. Trees as well as flowers provide pollen and it comes in many beautiful colors! Look out at the Maple, those beautiful red buds are full of pollen. Below is a list from Wiki

Pollen is part of the cycle of life that intertwines us all. The beginning of regeneration in the Spring gives the bees their source of life. We must then care for these plants as well as the bees. They can not be considered separately! Lawn care is big business in this country. Consider the methods that the average American uses for lawn care. Even garden clubs find it acceptable practice to use pesticides to maintain their flowerbeds and yards. This is not conducive to the survival of the honeybee or any of our wondrous pollinators. If you eat honey, pollen, propolis or any of the products of the hive you may be ingesting residues of those pesticides. This is not due to the beekeepers but the American love affair with "better living through chemistry". What you do in your yard MATTERS!

We do not use chemicals in our hives. We believe this harms rather than helps the girls in the long run. It is a choice not all beekeepers make. It is one that we make on a number of levels.

•  Our first priority is our family, I would not want to feed honey to my children if I used chemicals in the hive.
• Honeybees would not do this in nature
• It can be harmful just in their application to the beekeeper
• Studies have shown Pests adapt, get worse not less

So as we go into Spring and the Garden Bug makes you itch to get outside consider the Honeybee. Avoid the  Round-up this year, leave the plastic mulch off, start a compost, leave the Deet on the shelf( try a bubble machine) and in general think, "What would this do to a honeybee, it's food source and WHY do I NEED it?

Trees and shrubs - Spring

Common name	Latin name	Blooming months	Pollen color	Availability	Source for honeybees
Maple	Acer spp.	Feb - Apr	light yellow	feral	fair
Manitoba Maple (Box elder)	Acer negundo	Feb - Apr	light olive	feral	good
Norway maple	Acer platanoides	Apr - May	yellow green, olive	feral	fair
Red Maple	Acer rubrum	Mar - Apr	grey brown	feral
Grey Alder	Alnus incana	Feb - Apr	brownish yellow	feral
American Chestnut	Castanea dentata	May - Jun		mostly ornamental
Sweet Chestnut	Castanea sativa	May		feral	good
Common Hackberry	Celtis occidentalis	Apr - May		feral
Flowering Quince	Chaenomeles japonica, Chaenomeles lagenaria, Chaenomeles speciosa 'Nivalis', Chaenomeles x superba	Apr - May		feral	good
American Hazel	Corylus americana	Mar - Apr	light green	feral and ornamental	fair/good
Hawthorn	Crataegus spp.	Apr - May	yellow brown	feral	fair