From: Micky Lee <mlee4321@juno.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 14:48:58 -0500
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Size of honey and drone combs

Greetings all, This could get to be a long message.

Dee said:

> Micky, This is real interesting to read about pollen production in
> your area. If I remember right you are in a high
> farming area with various crops planted.

My response,

This is true. It is the custom of farmers to leave fence rows in
whatever grows there. Also the area on each side of natural drainage
lines [creeks, rivers] are not tilled and allowed to remain in a more or
less natural state. Thus the bees have access to native vegetation as
well as whatever has escaped from cultivation, including nonnative weeds
that were introduced with the seeds planted by early settlers.

Dee:

> How would you relate the farm crops
> to pollen collected by the bees, in your scenario above.

Reply:

Within a thirty miles radius natural vegetation varies from cottonwood
bottoms, flooded annually, to very rugged well drained terrain covered
with a variety of hardwoods. The understory species may bloom three
weeks earlier on a south slope than one facing north. Several soil types
and vegetation types occurred in between. Soil fertility can change
suddenly. Moving bees a short distance [2 miles] can increase annual
average crop from 50 pounds to over 100 pounds of honey.

Today much of the bottom land is behind levies and is usually planted in
corn, wheat, oats, etc. The most fertile soils are in fruit orchards,
mostly apple. The very rugged terrain was clear cut many years ago. As
it is too rough to farm it is in second growth timber, but the species
mix is somewhat different than original. The oaks are beginning to return
in some areas but it will be at least another hundred years before the
predominate species will be the same as they once were.

At the current location of my out yard I am located at the edge of a
field on a creek bank. The stream width can be as little as a foot wide
in a dry July, August to 30 feet wide during a spring thunderstorm.

The crop in the field is rotated on some sort of plan arrived at using
federal price support policies. The first two years I was there it was a
weedy hayfield. The next year it was Roundup ready corn. Last year
roundup ready soybeans. The field has been treated with ammonia and will
[weather permitting] be sprayed with roundup this week. Then will be
planted in oats. The field across the road gets the same rotation but is
not in the same crop the same year. They use different pesticides on
different crops. Pesticides do not seem to be a problem.

There is 40 acres of woods about a quarter mile up the road. The house
is 125 years old and still occupied by the family that built it.
Unfortunate they had no children. The nieces and nephews have left the
farm and are not interested in the house. When they pass on the farm
will be sold for at least 100,000 per acre and converted to home sites.
There are a few fruit trees and the house and some ornamental shrubs that
were popular when the house was built, the names of them have been
forgotten by the locals. When they bloom [a small white flower] they are
covered with my bees.

While the bees do collect pollen from grasses and corn, and both pollen
and nectar from soybeans, I am confident most of the honey and pollen is
collected from wild vegetation including field clover.

My concern here is, I do not like the unknown that comes with the
genetically engineered corn and soybeans. I would prefer I could know
that it all came from unfertilized, not sprayed floral sources. We know
that the protein mix in a plant including its pollen is different when
genes of another species are inserted. When the bt gene is inserted to
make corn deadly to various caterpillars, the pollen falling on milkweed
kills monarch butterfly larva. Supposedly this gene affects only the
larva of moths, butterflies and certain beetles.

Dee:

> I would assume (being careful here hopefully) that the pollen coming
> in January is pollen not from crops. When does the first pollen from
> agricultural crops start? Do you know what type it is? and how does
> it fluxuate and change throughout the year with your bees foraging? Do
> any of the crops produce honey also? Just curious, as all we have access to
> with our bees is native flora out in the hills that changes with season.

Reply:

In January, the first pollen comes from juniper/ceder followed closely by
maple. Both are wind pollinated and produce little, if any nectar. Bees
collect pollen from both. We think that, at least in some years maple
produces enough nectar to help the bees, tho not enough to sustain them
during this season.

The next major source of pollen is elm. By the time elm blooms the bees
are bringing is small amounts of pollen in several colors. Depending on
the year, late February early March bees can be seen working small
"winter weeds". Perennials and biennials that stay green all winter. You
have to get down on your hands and knees to see the tiny flowers. By
dandelion bloom more than a dozen colors of pollen are coming in and
nectar flow is sufficient that the stronger colonies begin raising
drones.

As our variety of pollen comes from wild sources it changes throughout
the season as does yours.

Dee:

> How does one manage bees with access to both native flora and
> agricultural crops? Does it create any problems other than the one
> mentioned, of having
> to cull excess pollen comb to give room for the queen to lay?

In our association we have a saying. "There are as many ways to manage
bees as there are beekeepers."

The unpredictability of the weather is our biggest challenge. We expect
drones in early to mid March. This year we experienced an unusually long
period of maximum temperatures below 70F. We did not see drones till
April. In addition we had 6 to 8 weeks in November and December when the
bees could not fly do to cold temperatures. We had only a day or two at
0 degrees but the wind was around twenty MPH. Many colonies starved with
60 pounds of honey the bees could not move to. Most of the colonies were
very small and did not have drones as of last as last Friday. We have
now experienced two days of record highs [90 degrees]. Nectar is coming
in strong now. I expect colonies that had less than 4 frames of bees
last week will be swarming by the first of May. Friday my two strongest
colonies had one and only one queen cell. Are they replacing their queen
or are they getting ready to swarm? Should I divide the colony or let
them work it out? I split one and not the other. I'll know in a couple
of weeks what I should have done.

Drones are few. I doubt they will get mated properly and will be
replaced before they are a month old.

I still keep a colony or two here at the house. My lot is 60x130. If I
can get the colonies strong and out of the notion on swarming by the
first week of May, I'll get 35 pounds of locust honey in 10 days. Then
there will be a two week period of almost no nectar before the main flow.
They may bring in 200 pounds by the 4th of July then nothing till fall.
Mostly clover but mixed with a variety of weeds and ornamental flowers.
The fall flow we count on for wintering the bees can be from 5 to 75
pounds per hive. How much honey should I leave on when I harvest 4th of
July weekend? When and how much rain makes the difference.

Dee:

> Could pollen
> traps be used in your area to trap pollen before going into the hive
> to cut back on culling combs and perhaps give another product to sell,
> namely pollen for consumption?

reply:

A few small beekeepers do without affecting their honey crop. The large
operators will not take the time. I have thought about it, but have
never gotten the ambition to do so.

Dee:

> It's nice to see how other areas of the country correspond so we all
> can learn and understand what the other is doing.

Reply:

I would also be interested if any one would like to write about their
area.

Micky