Beekeepr!

Beekeepr

It's so easy to fall in love with honey bees once you get to know them.

I'm busy researching herbal plants for honey bees so stay tuned for an aricle later on the subject.

So far I'm reading that a varied diet from many different plants is helpful to keep varroa mites down. The healthier your bees are the better they can survive the mites. Bees with good hygienic behavior are better able to deal with mites.

I hope you enjoy being here with us on ATP and feel free to tell us about your bees. We love pictures too.

Fantastic thread. Thank you for the info. I might take the plunge in 2014.

Welcome to the Beekeeping forum Stephanie.

I hope you do take the plunge next year. It's a very rewarding adventure.

If you haven't read them yet you'll find all kinds of articles on honey bees and beekeeping on my profile page. Just click my avatar and scroll down until you see the list of articles.

I feel that someone not far must keep honeybees around here because a few years ago the bee population in my yard really increased. I do have a large diversity of flowers including clover in my lawn. And I am careful, not using garden products that might hurt the bees.

Good to hear the bees are increasing in your area Rita.

Newyorkrita said:I do have a large diversity of flowers including clover in my lawn. And I am careful, not using garden products that might hurt the bees.

These are two very good reasons why you are seeing an increase in bees!!

I like clover in the lawn and so do the honeybees. But really someone around here must keep bees, there are just too many to be here on their own.

I like to grow cover crops because they draw in the bees. Not long ago I had planted Crimson Clover and Hairy Vetch. I had planted them in the spring but they grew and flowered and were done. So I pulled them and replanted. The flowers are pretty, I really like them. And the bees love them.

So today I see my Crimson clover is up, that was fast. The Hairy Vetch not up yet. I remember it was the same way in the spring, the Crimson Clover came up very quickly.

Oh the news they were talking about the decline in Honey bee hives. They were reporting on a study or studies (I didn't catch which) that linked the decline to sprays used on plants for fungal diseases. The conclusion they reported on the news was that these spays made the bees weaker and so they were much more prone to be wiped out by the various bee diseases and mites.

What were they calling it? Colony collapse?

I have roses, lots of roses, and on hot humid Long Island if I didn't spray my roses with a systemic fungicide they would soon get all sorts of fungus, drop all their leaves and be naked sticks. I want healthy plants with nice shiny green leaves and that is what I have. Never have I ever thought my spaying roses with fungicide could hurt the honeybees. Really, I have always been careful not to use any products that would harm any bees. That fungicides might be harmful makes me very sad.

Sorry I'm just seeing this Rita. Internet problem at home.

Anyway, the fungicide would only harm the bees if they visited the roses unless you spray while they are active and the overspray drifts to other plants they visit.

I will hopefully be back online Thursday.

Well, that is the way I have always understood it. That the spray would only harm bees if I used it while bees were on the flowers. I am very careful NOT to do that. But from what I understood about the new report it was that these fungicides are harmful to the bees just from being used on the plants and bees later come to visit.

Waiting on flowers to set on my Crimson clover and hairy vetch cover crops. These are the fall plants. First planting in spring long gone.






I like to plant these to attract bees but also just because I think the flowers on them are so pretty. They don't last long, both being annuals. They grow fast, they flowers and set seed and then they done. So I plant them twice. Once first in the spring and then for second showing in the fall.

Our bees seem to prefer the white clover blossoms over the red but that could be due to not much red clover here yet

My lawn is full of white clover. I like it, like the looks of it in the lawn. It is not flowering now, can't figgure out why. But when it is those honey bees are all over the blossoms.