Summer Wildflowers Add Color

With the change of seasons we find a change in the wildflowers coloring the undisturbed margins of fields and woodlots. The yellow, white, and purple flowers of spring have been replaced by different yellow flowers plus reds and whites. Among coffee weed and spires of Johnson grass, an overgrown ditch bank reveals several bright and colorful varieties of coreopsis plus white and yellow summer asters. Here at Peace Bee Farm, we collect and freeze pollen in the summer to feed to the bees next spring to ensure a good variety of nutrients at queen-raising time. We can tell that there are numerous pollen sources available just by observing the collected pollen. The color and taste of the pollen pellets changes almost daily. This summer diversity of proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals will be most valuable in the early spring when pollen is not abundant.

A group of home school students from northern Mississippi visited the bee farm today. The students have been studying entomology along with their parents. Again and again I am impressed by the understanding that young children have of their natural world. They ask the most pertinent questions. They came to the bee farm with considerable knowledge of insect and honey bee biology. They asked how bees find flowers, how they know when they need a new queen, and how they go about raising a new queen. Both the children and their parents were eager to discuss ways of introducing a new queen to a colony. They could foresee many of the problems of queen acceptance. Honey bees fascinate people of all ages and open their imaginations.
--Richard

Home School at the Bees' Home

A group of home school students and their parents and leaders visited the bee farm today. They came out equipped with digital cameras and inquisitive minds. The group is posed in our queen evaluation yard. I explained to these students that whenever I go into this bee yard, I carry a clip board and each colony receives a “report card.” Bad behavior gets bees “expelled.” From the colonies that score the highest on traits involving bee behavior, health, and honey production, we will raise new queens. The children had many questions about how the queen bee produces the eggs to propagate the entire colony. From their home school science studies the group came in with a good background on the nature of insects, the role of pollinators, and the relationship between humans, the flowering plants, the pollinating insects, and the environment. The group also visited the honey house and the queen mating yard. It is almost impossible to fill up a digital camera or an inquisitive mind.
--Richard