Black Cherry Attracts Bees

Yesterday I went to the bee yard of noted potter Agnes Stark to help her install some packages of honey bees. While visiting her beautiful property, I was struck by how gently she shares her activity with nature. I arrived a few minutes early, so I waited at the gate in the shade of a black cherry tree in full bloom. A sign proclaimed, “No Mow. No Spray.” The black cherry’s clusters of tiny flowers attracted honey bees as well as numerous solitary bees and one large carpenter bee that dropped in for pollen and a photo opportunity. Leaving the margins of one’s property not mowed and not sprayed with chemicals provides habitat for the native pollinators. Oh, by the way, the carpenter bee posing in the picture is the bee that bores holes in the wood of decks, porches, and roof eaves. The black cherry is a member of the important bee plant family, the roses.

The presence of wildlife is a good indicator of the health of our environment. During my brief visit to Agnes’ bee yard, I saw the diverse display of honey bees and native bee species at the black cherry. I also observed two geese, five deer, and a skink. The skink is the lizard with the bright blue tail. I find deer fairly often in bee yards. Beekeepers regularly plant clover in any vacant plots; honey bees pollinate the clover, making seed; deer browse the clover tops. I feel like the bees, their keepers, the clover, and the deer share a beneficial relationship. We are so interrelated in the environment.
--Richard

Installing Packaged Bees

The spring of the year is the time when honey bees expand their colonies and branch out to new territory. Since beekeepers have to follow the life patterns of the bees, it is also the time that we expand our colonies. Today I helped beekeeper and renowned potter, Agnes Stark, set up two hives using packaged honey bees. Using packaged bees is one of the several methods in which beekeepers establish new colonies. A package of bees is made up by a bee breeder by physically shaking the bees from the frames of established hives into a wooden box with screened walls. The box is about the size and shape of a shoe box. A typical package of bees will contain three pounds of bees, about 12000 bees. The package will also contain one queen bee, confined in a cage. To keep the bees fed and hydrated during their trip from the bee breeder to the beekeeper, there is a can of syrup with tiny drip holes inside the box.

Here, you can see Agnes pouring the bees from the package into the hive that she prepared for them. She placed the queen cage inside the hive, exposing a candy plug to the bees. It will take the bees a day or more to eat through the candy and release the queen. This candy plug acts as a delaying feature for the release of the queen, allowing the bees to get accustomed to her pheromones. Once the queen is released from her cage, she will begin laying eggs; and the packaged bees will function as a colony. These bees were fortunate to have landed in the bee yard of Agnes Stark. Be sure to visit the artist’s web site: starkpottery.com.
--Richard