Wettest July Ever

Honey bees make the most honey when the weather is hot and dry. Well, that has not been the case this year. This appears to have been the wettest month of July recorded in this area. July is the time of the year when the greatest nectar flow is expected in the Arkansas Delta. Some rain is of course necessary for plants to remain healthy and secrete nectar. However, an excessively rainy period greatly affects the amount of honey that is produced by a bee hive. The honey bee does not forage in the rain. Heavy or steady rains keep the bees in the hive, eating honey instead of making honey. The plants don’t secrete as much nectar on cloudy days. Also, rain can wash away the nectar in unprotected flowers or dilute the nectar. Nectar brought into the hive during rainy days generally contains more water and less sugar.

Soybean fields in the area are holding standing water from record-level rains. Fields that should have honey bees foraging for nectar find herons and egrets foraging for crawfish. If conditions keep the bees from being able to forage at the time of the major nectar flows, there will not be a surplus of honey produced. This week found the Arkansas Delta wet and unseasonably cool, while the Pacific Northwest experienced record high temperatures. This is what is to be expected from climate change. The weather does not gently warm a couple of degrees; the weather moves to the extremes. Global warming and its associated weather related effects on plant growth may adversely affect honey bee nutrition. Nutritional issues are considered a contributing factor in the decline in honey bees and native pollinators. Fortunately, these factors are being recognized; and we can move toward correcting our actions which affect the weather and the bees. Today’s photo shows great egrets foraging in a wet soybean field.
--Richard

Bee Hive Products

The honey bee hive produces a number of products that are useful to man. The first is, of course, honey. We know from cave paintings that men have been taking honey from bees for at least seven thousand years. Rita gave a presentation on the products of the bee hive to an interested group at the Collierville, Tennessee library. The next product of the bee hive is beeswax, which is the material from which the comb is made. Beeswax is secreted by glands on the underside of the young bees’ abdomens. Beeswax has been used extensively by man. High quality beeswax candles have always been a church tradition. Beeswax strengthens thread for sewing and bowstrings for archery. Beeswax was used extensively aboard ships, especially as a lubricant. Mixed with other waxes and oils, beeswax can be converted into many products from furniture polish, to boot and saddle conditioner, to lip gloss and hand lotions. Bee pollen is a high-protein hive product eaten as a food that contains vitamins and minerals. Propolis is the antibacterial and antifungal bee glue that honey bees make from the saps and gums of trees. It is harvested from the bee hive to produce medicines for man. Antonio Stradivari used propolis in the late 1600s when he built violins. Royal jelly is collected from the queen bee cells and is eaten by humans. This food of the queen bee is collected in tiny amounts, mostly in China. Almost none is collected in the United States. The products of the bee hive are sources of hundreds of items used by man.

Today’s picture is button bush, a shrub which thrives in the Arkansas Delta at the water’s edge. Button bush has an open, unprotected flower, which attracts a number of insect species. Click on the picture to see a honey bee sharing a button bush flower with a butterfly. A tiny solitary bee rests nearby.
--Richard

Curing Honey

As Shirley Murphy and I examined her new hive of bees, we looked over the various patterns of hive structures, all based upon the honey bee’s six-sided cells of beeswax. Each structure in the hive has a slightly different appearance. The brood area has open cells that are empty or that have eggs or larvae. There are capped cells in the brood area with a brown, slightly gritty texture. There are capped drone brood cells shaped like the nose of bullets. These rise above the surface of worker brood cells. There are free-form shapes called brace comb and burr comb that don’t lie in flat sheets. Vertical queen cell cups and queen cells hang from the bottoms of frames. In the honey supers, the bees make frames of comb to hold the liquid honey. Wet, uncured honey is held in open cells. Cured honey, which is chemically altered by the enzymes in the honey bee’s body and then evaporated, is capped with beeswax. The freshly secreted capping wax ranges in color from white to yellow. The surface of the beeswax cappings contains curved linear markings, giving the appearance of hieroglyphic writings.

Shirley noticed that all of the bees along the top edge of a frame of capped honey had their heads inside cells. These bees were curing the remaining cells of honey. The bees suck the honey into their honey gut, mixing it with enzymes. They then blow bubbles with the honey, expanding its surface area and promoting evaporation. Evaporation is increased by the bees’ fanning their wings. They cap the honey with freshly secreted beeswax once its moisture content is reduced to 18 percent water. In the picture you can see the bees actively involved in curing the honey. The yellow, textured structure is cured honey capped with beeswax and patterned like hieroglyphics.
--Richard

Tennessee Adds New Beekeepers

Facing a decline in the number of pollinators, the Tennessee Beekeepers Association is attempting to help individuals enter beekeeping across the state of Tennessee. The state-wide organization provided bee hives and start-up equipment for 72 Tennessee beekeepers. An integral part of the program to help first-time beekeepers is the matching of all new beekeepers with an experienced mentor. Training courses, books, and literature go a long way toward explaining the science of beekeeping. An experienced mentor can explain the art of beekeeping. It takes experienced eyes to detect the subtle differences between hives. It takes a good teacher to explain to the new beekeeper what is occurring in the bee hive and why. A mentor can help detect and correct hive problems and turn the early efforts into a rewarding experience.

I had the opportunity to visit Shirley Murphy, one of the new beekeepers, at her Tennessee River home. Shirley and her partner, Mike, an avid nature photographer, have added honey bees to the fruit and nut trees, vegetables, and flowers that they grow in clearings in the hardwood forest. Deer and wild turkey abound as well as small game and song birds. The honey bee plays an instrumental part in providing food for wildlife by pollinating plants which provide fruit and seeds. Shirley and I inspected her new colony of honey bees located near her vineyard. The prolific colony had recently superseded its queen, and we found the new queen in the brood nest. In the photo, Shirley examines a deep frame of brood, covered with nurse bees. We started our inspection in gloves, and then removed them as we got a feel for the gentleness of the hive. Shirley and Mike are true stewards of the environment. I enjoyed their hospitality, a wonderful lunch, shared stories, and a very nice bottle of home-made wine. Shirley’s bees are in good hands.
--Richard

Martins and Drones

At Peace Bee Farm, we enjoy the purple martins for half of the year. These largest of the swallows arrive in February, nest in artificial gourds that we provide for them, rear young birds, and then leave without fanfare in July. During the six months that they occupy the farm, they entertain us daily with their song, which is almost speech, and their flight, which some describe as aerial acrobatics. Anyone who has observed these popular birds knows their ability to climb, dive, and soar can’t be matched by other birds. They can regularly be seen sweeping along the surface of lakes or soaring hundreds of feet in the air, catching insects in flight. When they approach their nest, they dive at great speed. It is not uncommon for us to see drone honey bees chasing the martins as the birds circle their nesting gourds or sweep in for a landing. Sometimes a single drone follows a martin; at times half a dozen drones will be in close pursuit. The drones, which normally pursue queen bees in their mating flights, have no trouble keeping up with the rapid, turning flight of the martins. Click on the photo and you can see a number of drones that followed the martin all the way back to the perch above their nesting gourds.

The purple martin is an insect eater and a very efficient gatherer of flying insects. It is obvious that our martins frequent the drone concentration areas and bring back drones visually focused on the zooming birds. I don’t know how many drones and queen bees are eaten by these birds along the way, but I do feel that the birds are doing their part to eliminate weak drones and queens from the mating areas. If this is the case, the martins are helping select for stronger honey bees. The martins will spend the next six months in the Amazon River basin. I wonder if their other home is a similar bee farm in the Southern Hemisphere.
--Richard

Corn Produces Pollen

Honey bees are attracted to the flowering plants, and they collect nectar and pollen from them. The attraction of the bees is part of a mutually beneficial relationship that the flowering plants and the bees share. The bees gain food, and the flowering plants are pollinated, a necessary step in their reproduction. The bees are generally not attracted to the grasses, though. The grasses reproduce by wind pollination and do not need insects to carry the pollen. One grass does attract honey bees at times, and the plant is corn. Honey bees may be seen flying down rows of corn. As the bees fly, their hairy bodies take on an electrostatic charge. Flying among the tassels of corn plants, the pollen jumps onto the hairs of the bees’ bodies. Back at the hive, the corn pollen, along with other pollens, is mixed with honey to make bee bread to be feed to the brood. A diverse diet of pollens makes for good nutrition for the developing bees. Pollen contains protein, vitamins, minerals, and fats, or lipids. While the honey bees bring some corn pollen into the hive, corn produces no nectar; so there is no honey made from corn.

In the photo we can see broom corn being grown as produce at Whitton Farms in the foreground. In the distance, beyond the Peace Bee Farm bee hives that pollinate the Whitton produce and flowers, you can see a large field of corn. This variety of corn seen in the distance is most likely to produce grain to be converted into ethanol for fuel. To see more about the activity at Whitton Farms, visit their web site, http://whittonfarms.com/.
--Richard

4-H Trains Leaders

Tennessee 4-H is designed to develop citizenship, leadership, and life skills. The Tennessee Beekeepers Association is sponsoring the 4-H beekeeping and entomology program. As I am serving as president of the state-wide beekeeping organization, I was invited to participate in the 4-H Roundup as a judge of high school students who participated in beekeeping and entomology projects. The students made oral presentations before a group of judges at the University of Tennessee-Martin campus. Tod Underhill also served as a judge. As well as being active at Peace Bee Farm, Tod is an instructor at The University of Memphis. We both spent an enjoyable day meeting with students who had definitely gained specific skills in the study of beekeeping and the broader study of entomology. They also demonstrated that they were developing communications skills, poise in making presentations, and self confidence. Each of the students was quite impressive in his or her presentation. Jonathan Belcher of Rockvale, Tennessee and Phillip Adams of Burns, Tennessee were the winners. Jonathan received a college scholarship, and Phillip won a trip to the National 4-H Congress. I congratulate each of those who participated

Today’s photo is swamp mallow, which is now in bloom. Swamp mallow can be seen in the damp ground along drainage ditches and bodies of water in the Arkansas Delta. The large, bell-shaped flowers are particularly attractive to bumble bees as seen in the photo. The bumble bees climb deep into the flower, stay for a considerable amount of time, and then emerge covered in pollen. Click on the photo to see the bumble emerging from the flower. The swamp mallow is in the same family as hollyhock, hibiscus, rose of Sharon, and cotton.
--Richard