Pax Vobiscum

 

Heifer Ranch is a working ranch and agricultural demonstration farm at Perryville, Arkansas. This year I witnessed at the ranch how honey bees play a role in restoring and enhancing the environment for both plants and animals. Managed honey bees along with feral colonies and native bees and pollinators play a quiet and barely seen role in the life of the ranch. For instance, bees pollinate legumes, including clover, vetch, lespedeza, alfalfa, partridge peas, and beggar’s lice, as they gather nectar and pollen to feed their colony. Pollination is the first step in the production of seed for these plants growing in pastures. Legumes provide high-value, nitrogen-rich food for livestock and wildlife animals, and legumes are but one family of flowering plants and grasses that feed livestock on the ranch. The livestock, selectively bred to thrive on grasses rather than grain feeds, are managed for sale for human consumption.

As well as producing seed by pollinating plants, bees benefit the environment by enriching the soil. Bacteria dwelling on the roots of legumes convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form suitable for use by plants. Thus, they enrich the soil and promote the growth of pasture grasses and increase the carrying capacity of the land. Regenerative agricultural practices employ measures replicating the natural grazing of wildlife that allows grasses to develop deep roots. Heifer Ranch cattle and sheep, shown here rotating to another of the ranch’s pastures of tall grasses, graze the way bison move across the Great Plains, constantly moving to forage available grasses. The cattle and sheep eat the top growth of the grasses and deposit manure that fertilizes the pastures. Their hooves push nutrients into the soil; the soil improves; grasses develop deeper roots; and the soil retains more water than soil under shallow roots. The honey bee queen ends her short winter break and starts laying eggs on the winter solstice to regenerate the colony. The Underhill family of Peace Bee Farm offer to all: Peace be with you.

--Richard

Soybeans and Honey

The soybean is an important honey plant, but not all soybean varieties produce enough nectar to produce a surplus of honey. A beekeeper asked me which varieties of soybeans are the best sources of nectar for making honey. I wish that I could answer this clearly, but I can’t. To try to get some answers, I visited an agricultural research facility where soybean varieties are being developed and tested. Discussing soybean variety characteristics with a researcher, I learned that the amount of nectar offered by a soybean variety is of importance to beekeepers; but it is not a trait that is selected in developing soybeans. The traits that are important to soybean growers include yield, nutrition, and tolerance to pests, disease, and drought. Seed producers also divide soybean varieties according to planting, bloom, and harvest times. Soybeans in any location often include both early and late season varieties. Planting different fields with different varieties helps the farmer spread out the harvest. This benefits honey producers with bee hives near the soybean fields by extending the bloom period, often by several weeks.

I also spoke with several Arkansas beekeepers this week. We discussed honey production around soybean fields. Their thoughts regarding soybeans as important honey plants involved the location and soil type of the fields. For example, beekeepers on the west side of Arkansas’ White River make little honey from soybeans, while beekeepers on the east side of the river make a considerable amount of soybean honey. Soybeans grown on land close to the Mississippi River generally produce considerable amounts of nectar. New soybean varieties are being developed, like one being grown this year for use with new herbicides. Repeated use of a single herbicide led to resistance in crop weeds. Regardless which varieties are planted, honey bees can usually fly far enough to find one that is attractive, even if they have to fly over soybeans offering less reward. Beekeepers can’t simply list good soybean varieties. Today’s photo: harvesting soybeans.

--Richard

Chemicals in Beekeeping

A new beekeeper attending an introductory course in beekeeping was surprised by the number of chemical treatments available for the beehive. She asked, “Can beekeepers avoid using antibiotics and miticides and still have healthy bees?” The answer is not simple, for there are several approaches to keeping honey bees. Some beekeepers rely upon chemical treatments for parasitic mites and honey bee diseases. However, over time, the honey bee pests and pathogens develop resistance to the chemical agents. Other beekeepers attempt to tend to bees without the use of treatments. In most cases their colonies dwindle and die within a couple of years. A third approach at beekeeping, which we adhere to at Peace Bee Farm, relies upon a series of integrated pest management steps designed to strengthen the bee colony while lessening the colony’s pests and pathogens.

An IPM approach to beekeeping employs a number of cultural, biological, and mechanical measures. Purchasing resistant-stock queen bees that are bred for hygienic behavior is the first biological measure for controlling parasitic Varroa mites. The hive design affects colony health. Screened bottom boards increase ventilation and reduce the hive’s Varroa mites. Ventilation is important for controlling chalkbrood and Nosema disease. Encouraging bees to preen Varroa mites by dusting the bees with powdered sugar is a cultural control. When the mites fall through the screen, ants eat them, a biological control. Varroa prefer to reproduce on drone brood. Removing and freezing frames of drone brood is biological control of these vectors of honey bee viruses. Parasitic tracheal mites seek very young bees as hosts, but they can be confused by vegetable oil patties placed in the hive, a biological control. Worker bees chase small hive beetles into traps, a mechanical control. These and more IPM measures, when used together, help protect the honey bee colony. Finally, when mite control is necessary, beekeepers should choose the “soft” treatments, such as those derived from essential oils. Today’s photo: partridge pea, a legume. A grasshopper consumes the foliage.

--Richard

Black Locust in Bloom

The beekeeper’s calendar follows the honey bee’s life cycle more closely than our calendar on the wall which is based on dates of the year. Activity in Peace Bee Farm’s hives in the Arkansas Delta leads those of our beekeeping friends in New England by about seven weeks, and it lags behind our New Zealand friends’ hives by about six months. Since honey bee activities are timed differently in various areas, beekeepers watch the bloom of certain flowering plants to help predict events in the bee hive. One of the significant observations for many is the bloom of the black locust tree. To them, the black locust tells when to expect the queen to be at her maximum egg laying production. This can mean that the beekeeper can rear new queen bees in cell builder hives. It can also mean that swarm season is rapidly approaching. At this time, colonies often replace their queen through supersedure or create a new queen and divide the colony through swarming.

When in bloom, the black locust is easily recognizable along the margins of woodlots or suburban landscapes by its large clusters of fragrant, bright white blossoms. These trees, which reach 80 feet, may attract large numbers of honey bees as well as other bees; however, the black locust nectar flow is not consistent from year to year. In some years the relatively weak black locust nectar is not as attractive as other plants blooming at the same time, and few honey bees are seen working the locust flowers. In other years an abundant surplus of tasteful, light-colored black locust honey may be harvested. The black locust is a member of the legume family. The legumes are important bee plants because they produce ample amounts of nectar and pollen. The honey locust, another legume, is similar in appearance, and it produces flowers with the fragrance of honey. However, the honey locust, which sports eight-inch thorns, usually does not produce a surplus of honey.

--Richard

Redbud in Bloom

The sight of purplish-red color splashed through the understory of the woods is a true sign of spring. Redbud trees are in bloom throughout the Mid-South. These small trees covered with pink or rose flowers are easily recognizable from a distance. They grow under the oak and hickory cover of the woods and along ditch banks and forest margins. Redbuds are propagated by seeds that hang in pods, and are distributed by songbirds and the wind. In suburban settings, the colorful redbud is a cultivated favorite for landscape plantings. Honey bees are attracted in great numbers to the bright pink to rose-colored flowers which cover redbud twigs, stems, and even trunks. Honey bees do not make a surplus of redbud honey, but the tree does provide a dependable source of both nectar and pollen at an important time when bees are rapidly expanding their colonies and need all of the food they can gather to feed the brood.

The redbud is a member of the important family of bee plants, the legumes. The legumes, or pea or bean family, includes many of the most prolific producers of nectar for honey. Many of the legumes are forage and food plants. Clover is a legume, as are alfalfa, peanuts, lentils, lespedeza, peas, beans, wisteria, and vetch. Like the redbud, a number of trees are legumes. Among them are the black locust, honey locust, mimosa, and Kentucky coffeetree. By pollinating the flowers of legumes, the honey bees play an important role in producing seed, and help produce food for humans as well as livestock and wildlife. The seeds of the legumes are contained in pods that resemble peas or beans. Many of the legumes also serve the environment by enriching the soil. Bacteria growing in nodules on the roots of legumes take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it in the soil to a usable form for plants to absorb. In this way these plants actually enrich the soil.

--Richard

Nectar and Pollen Sources

An observant Central Virginia beekeeper is identifying flowering plants in his area that are useful for producing nectar and pollen. There is a great diversity of flowering plants in a temperate region like Virginia, and a number of these are important bee plants. Virginia honey bees forage prolific nectar sources: clover, black locust, basswood or linden, and tuliptree. The Appalachian Mountains support the sourwood tree, which produces nectar in the higher altitudes. From the nectar of this flowering tree, bees make the famous sourwood honey. Many of the flowering plants produce both nectar and pollen to attract honey bees. There are seven families of flowering plants that can be considered exceptionally important to the honey bees. The rose family contains almonds, apples, pears, plums, cherries, blackberries, and hawthorns. The mustard family includes spinach, turnips, kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, and rape or canola. The legume family has peanuts, soybeans, peas, beans, indigo, alfalfa, kudzu vine, and the most prolific honey plant, clover. Some legumes are trees: mimosa, redbud, Kentucky coffeetree, and black locust. The snapdragon family includes mullein and the empress tree. The composite family includes the sunflowers, dandelion, goldenrod, and many garden flowers, like the coneflower and daisy. The mint family includes spearmint, peppermint, catnip, bee balm, lemon balm, and coleus. Finally, the magnolia family includes one important tree for the honey bees, the tuliptree, also known as yellow poplar. Almost any plant in these families can be expected to provide considerable amounts of nectar and pollen.

Beekeepers can identify obscure wildflowers that they observe attracting honey bees by following local guides like Weeds of the Northeast, by Uva, Neal, and DiTomaso. One person’s weed may be a beekeeper’s important wildflower. The Hive and the Honey Bee, edited by Joe M. Graham, lists a number of bee plants according to family and identifies them as nectar or pollen sources. Today’s photo is a bumblebee collecting pollen from native wildflowers at the seven thousand foot elevation on Pike’s Peak in Colorado.

--Richard

Soybeans in Bloom

Soybeans are in bloom throughout the Arkansas Delta. The soybean is a member of the important family of bee plants, the legumes. The legumes are the bean or pea family. It includes a number of flowering plants which produce large amounts of nectar and pollen that is gathered by honey bees. The legume family includes both trees and smaller flowering plants. Among the trees are the Kentucky coffeetree, black locust, honey locust, redbud, and mimosa. Flowering plants, shrubs, and vines in the legume family include the peas and beans, peanuts, false indigo, vetch, clover, lespedeza, kudzu, and alfalfa. The legumes are important plants in agriculture and the throughout the environment because many of them enrich the soil by the action of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These bacteria, found in nodules on the plant roots, take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it to a form useful for plant metabolism. The honey bees gather soybean nectar from the small, orchid-shaped flowers. Depending upon the variety of soybean plant, the flowers vary from white to pink. Today I found no honey bees foraging in a field of white-colored blooms. The bees were evidently drawn to another variety in a nearby field offering a stronger concentration of sugars as a greater reward to the bees. Soybean honey is light in color, flavor, and aroma.  

With the nectar flowing in the Delta, we crossed the Mississippi River today to harvest spring honey from our Tennessee hives. The honey bees are able to produce the most honey in years that are hot and dry. This year has proven to be just what is needed for a good yield. We collected heavy supers of spring wildflower and clover honey. One of our bee yards had been vandalized. Some individuals had thrown enough bricks at the hives to actually break the wooden hive bodies. Yes, I am sure that they received the desired effect. Defensive honey bees fly rapidly from their nest to repel attackers. They sting.

--Richard

Changing Agriculture

Agriculture is in constant change as farmers develop new techniques for more effectively growing plants in changing environmental conditions or expanded ranges. One of the great changes in food production in recent years has been the movement away from mechanical tillage of crops to the use of chemical herbicides for the control of competing weeds. Mechanical tillage usually involved cultivating the centers of rows of crops to remove weeds and loosen the soil for absorption of rain water. Recent years have found an increasing dependence upon a single herbicide, Glyphosate, for controlling weeds. Glyphosate, originally sold under the name Roundup, is applied to growing crops of soybeans, cotton, corn, sorghum, canola, or alfalfa that have been genetically modified to tolerate the herbicide. These crops, called Roundup Ready, are not damaged by the herbicide sprayed across the entire field to control weeds. The use of Glyphosate has many advantages for the grower including lessening the need for mechanical tillage which is quite costly in equipment, labor, and fuel. Unfortunately, problems arise with the use of Glyphosate, as certain weed plants develop resistance to the herbicide. Roundup-resistant Palmer pigweed, growing to 10 foot heights, is forcing some Arkansas Delta farmers to return to cultivation of crops to control this hearty weed. Today’s photo shows a Delta farmer cultivating soybeans. Soybeans are important honey bee forage plants. Soybeans, members of the legume family, produce considerable amounts of nectar, from which the bees make mild and flavorful honey.

Just as row-crop farmers have to adjust their farming practices to changing conditions, bee farmers must adjust to changes in the environment of the bee hive. The continued introduction of honey bee pests and pathogens has led many beekeepers to move toward chemical-free techniques to prevent the pests from developing resistance to chemical treatments. Beekeepers develop Integrated Pest Management plans to help control parasitic mites, small hive beetles, a new strain of Nosema disease, and other hive problems while lessening the use of chemicals in the hive.

--Richard

Clover in Bloom

In today’s photo we see a bumblebee foraging for nectar on white clover. White clover probably can be considered the most important honey plant. When the temperatures range between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, clover is a prolific nectar producer. Though the blossoms have been observed for quite a while, clover requires warm days to secrete large amounts of nectar. Clover is a member of the important family of bee plants, the legumes. Like a number of legumes, clover serves an important role in fixing nitrogen into a usable state in the soil. Even though the atmosphere is largely comprised of nitrogen, it is not available for plants to use. Bacteria growing on the roots of the clover plants are the active agent for converting the nitrogen. The result is increased soil fertility. Along with the clovers, the legume, or pea, family includes a number of important bee plants: peas, beans, peanuts, alfalfa, soybeans, lespedeza, vetch, kudzu, redbud, mimosa, locust, and Kentucky coffeetrees. Many of these plants provide food for wildlife and animal forage. Clover, alfalfa, and lespedeza are used as pasture crops for cattle; while soybeans are processed into feed for livestock and poultry.

Beekeepers plant clover around bee yards and in spare patches of land. The plant has a hearty root system and is easily propagated by seed. The seed is produced when honey bees forage the flowers. I often find the foot prints of deer in stands of clover around bee yards. As well as being an important forage plant for honey bees, it provides high-quality food for wildlife. Clover honey is light in color and mild in flavor, making it one of the favorites with the public. Bumblebees, like the one shown, are dwindling in many areas due to the loss of habitat. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is attempting to make people aware of the potential for pollinator habitat restoral along the nation’s roadsides. You can read more at: http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation-roadsides/.

--Richard

Preparing for Swarming

Redbuds bloom, and beekeeping activity increases dramatically in April. The honey bee colony’s tendency is to reproduce itself each year by swarming, the honey bee’s colony-wide means of reproduction. Through swarming, they increase the numbers of bees and colonies in the area and spread their territory. We can’t stop swarming, but beekeepers can take some actions to decrease the amount of swarming that occurs. For the honey producer, a colony’s swarming means there will be no surplus of honey to be harvested for the year’s investment in maintaining the hive. When honey bees swarm, they divide the colony and roughly half of the colony flies away from the hive to build a new nest. A new queen is produced to continue the old colony, and the old queen flies off with enough bees to establish a new colony. While the act of swarming may only take a few minutes, the event occurs after about a month of preparation.

There are a number of factors which influence the bees to begin making preparations to swarm. Among these are the age of the queen, the number of eggs that she lays, and the strength of the pheromones that she secretes. Crowding of the brood nest is probably the most important factor in starting a colony to swarm. The beekeeper’s choice of the number of boxes used in the brood nest and how the hive is managed are important contributing factors affecting swarming. Honey bee colonies regularly replace their queen through a process called supersedure. When colonies in small hives supersede their queen, they often swarm. Colonies in large hives frequently supersede their queen without swarming. To me, reducing swarming is a great advantage of housing bees in large hives. Either two deep hive bodies or three medium hive bodies house a large brood nest. Click on today’s picture of a honey bee collecting bright, golden pollen from a redbud flower. The redbud tree is a member of the important bee plant family, the legumes.

--Richard

The Legume Family

As we move into the middle of November, blooming flowers are becoming more and more scarce. I found some trailing lespedeza in bloom being foraged by honey bees. Lespedeza is a member of the important bee plant family, the legumes, Leguminosae or Fabaceae. The legumes, also known as the pea or bean family, include a large number of species of herbs, shrubs, and trees that produce nectar and pollen that is collected by honey bees and other pollinators. Among the legumes there are several species of wild indigo as well as false indigo, partridge peas, wild senna, butterfly pea, vetch, tick trefoil, or beggar’s lice, coral bean, everlasting pea, American wisteria, and kudzu vine. Lespedeza includes a number of species of bush clovers that are important wildlife foods. Other legumes include crimson clover, red clover, and white clover, probably the world’s greatest nectar source for honey. Trees in the legume family include mimosa, Kentucky coffeetree, the locusts, and redbud. Food and forage plants in the legume family include soybeans, peanuts, lespedeza, lentil, alfalfa, and cultivated peas and beans.

Aside from the food and forage value of the legumes, we derive dyes, gums, resins, and oils from the seeds. The legumes are a major food source for wildlife. Legumes also serve the environment by fixing nitrogen into the soil. Many of the legumes house bacteria living in nodules on the plant roots which convert atmospheric nitrogen to a usable state in the soil. In the Arkansas Delta, soybeans are the greatest nectar source for honey due to the immense acreage of plantings. Our Peace Bee Farm summertime honey is principally derived from a mixture of nectars from soybeans and wildflowers. This honey has a light amber color and a mild aroma and flavor. The legumes are truly important plants for the honey bees. With the help of the honey bee’s pollination, the legumes provide large amounts of food and forage for man, and domestic animals, and wildlife.
--Richard