Evaluating the Season

Part of gathering the harvest is evaluating the year that has passed, which leads to hopes and plans for the upcoming year. As I was busy removing the honey from my hives, I was noticing that the stores for the upcoming winter seem significantly more in my hive in the city. The hives in the country, on a farm, have been fraught with problems, one after another.

One might expect that the city would be a dubious place for a hive because of all the buildings, people and traffic. In reality, the nature of my neighborhood in the city makes it an ideal location for a beehive. There are street trees by the dozen- all mature, that produce hundreds of thousands of Linden blossoms for well over three weeks. There are flowering and fruiting trees and bushes. There are the spring bulbs, summer flowers and vegetable gardens all through the neighborhood. People have planted so many varieties of vegetation that there is something blooming in almost every season.

Out in the country with fields and woods seems the obvious place for success as a beekeeper but I am finding that to be untrue. There were a variety of flowering plants around the farm where I have placed my hives- Wild raspberries, Black Locust trees, Jewel weed, Clover. A nearby farmer plants Alfalfa and there are all sorts of garden flowers and landscaping in the vicinity. So why do the bees seem to have put so little away for the winter out there? Weather is a factor in any place, for all agricultural endeavors and this seasons has been unusually wet. Yet, that didn't seem to be a problem in the city. Perhaps I didn't pick the best location for the hives. I think I need a second year in that space to evaluate that properly. The alfalfa farmer may not have let his field flower and that would be a big problem for my bees. I have learned that the current way of crop management may not suit honeybees at all. In fact, Alfalfa that is grown for hay makes a more nutrient-rich product if it is not allowed to flower.

There seems to be large amounts of the country floral sources I mentioned above but there is empty time between the flowerings- perhaps the bees eat most of the previous harvest before the next is available. There isn't much edge space along fields and forest anymore what with the use of pest and herbicides, so there are not many wildflowers growing there anymore, just mown grass. This is no good for honeybees or for any other pollinators. It is also a problem for predatory insects that might eat field crop pests and raise their young on these wild edge areas.

It is a real dilemma for beekeepers and for all of us who depend on the honeybees and other pollinators for our food. This season I will be thinking about how to improve that situation.