A honey of a bee
Here’s a perfect photo of a perfect honey bee working white sweet clover. Thank you, Bill!
How to recognize a nectar dearth
“How can I recognize a nectar death?” is a common newbee question and a hard one to answer. I think most experienced beekeepers know which plants are in flower in any season, which bloom follows another, and how long each lasts. They are attuned to variations in the weather from year to year, and they […] Read more
Bees on Eryngium
The photo below came from Trent Amonett of Pullman, Washington. He writes: I took the attached photo this last weekend. We’re in the dearth here in Pullman, and my bees are visiting food sources in my yard, which they normally don’t do. The thistle is a perennial that came with the house. I came close […] Read more
Where have all the flowers gone?
We hear it all the time: the honey bee diet is poor. Bees need more flowers of many different types if they are to survive in the modern world. Once upon a time, flowers were everywhere. Meadows of fragrant blooms shimmied in the breeze, viney tendrils choked fence posts, and tap-rooted weeds squatted in gardens. […] Read more
The dandelions of spring
Dandelions are not perfect bee food, no single species is. Instead, they are very good food. They are early, they are everywhere. They are not particular. They teem with life. As a kid, I hated dandelions. In early spring before they bloomed, the greens—bitter and rank—were served fried in bacon fat and smothered in gravy. […] Read more
Honey bee forage: Siberian squill
I am fascinated by blue pollen: it seems so over-the-top. Nature provides cool things, but to me, blue pollen is gratuitous, an act of sheer beauty. Although I’ve posted photos of it before, they’ve been provided by other beekeepers, and I so wanted to see it myself. So about three years ago I set out […] Read more
Late summer forager on borage
Borage is a great bee plant for the late summer forager. Not only are the flowers a bee-friendly color, but they bloom late in the summer when nothing else is showing signs of life. For this photo, I stretched out in the grass underneath a borage and aimed at the sky, blue on blue. I […] Read more