i have a lavender farm. it is a joy to have native and honey bees around. i rent my land from a quasi federal facility...so my land licence doesnt allow me to have bee hives as it would try to oust the local native bees.
while..as a farmer and beekeeper..i got annoyed because it took away a lucrative source of income from hives and honey...i slowly began to appreciate their rationale. i started seeing so many bees that arent really honey bees.
in california, honey bees are actually foreign italian bees. as a beekeeper, my favourite part of the job is to observe bees...and it was fascinating how many other kinds of bees there were other than italian bees that we usually buy ..as queen bee and nucs..
this, of course, creates an interesting problem. italian honeybees..not being native californian dont always tolerate native californian pollen. in spring..if there is a lack of flowering species, they will feed anyways when they swarm to california buckeye which is likely to be toxic to their digestive systems(this is true too of yellow jessamine vine in the south of usa) and can kill them.
the hack is to make sure they have other nectar flowers in early spring. they wont go to the harmful flowers is sufficient food is around and available. the easy answer is brambles. bramble berries flower early and are pollen/nectar laden. when i heard about it, i felt like i stumbled upon some super awesome secret.
i wish i can encourage everyone to be friends of bees...and other pollinators. there is so much we dont know about them. at times..when i am tired and had a bit of tipple..i even let me mind wander and wonder if they are possibly alien to our planet. bees are almost like alien intelligence. when they leave us, we should be scared...very worried, at least.
while..as a farmer and beekeeper..i got annoyed because it took away a lucrative source of income from hives and honey...i slowly began to appreciate their rationale. i started seeing so many bees that arent really honey bees.
in california, honey bees are actually foreign italian bees. as a beekeeper, my favourite part of the job is to observe bees...and it was fascinating how many other kinds of bees there were other than italian bees that we usually buy ..as queen bee and nucs..
this, of course, creates an interesting problem. italian honeybees..not being native californian dont always tolerate native californian pollen. in spring..if there is a lack of flowering species, they will feed anyways when they swarm to california buckeye which is likely to be toxic to their digestive systems(this is true too of yellow jessamine vine in the south of usa) and can kill them.
the hack is to make sure they have other nectar flowers in early spring. they wont go to the harmful flowers is sufficient food is around and available. the easy answer is brambles. bramble berries flower early and are pollen/nectar laden. when i heard about it, i felt like i stumbled upon some super awesome secret.
i wish i can encourage everyone to be friends of bees...and other pollinators. there is so much we dont know about them. at times..when i am tired and had a bit of tipple..i even let me mind wander and wonder if they are possibly alien to our planet. bees are almost like alien intelligence. when they leave us, we should be scared...very worried, at least.