The Flow

Beekeeping is our new project on the homestead.  We caught two swarms and have inspected and have laying queens in both boxes.  Let me correct that.  We actually caught three swarms, but one was not healthy and we ended up combining two hives into one.  We now have two.  Every couple of weeks, we open the top of the box and pull out frames and inspect.  It is very important to be observant.  If your bees rapidly expand and run out of space, they will split and you'll lose a queen and half of the colony as they'll swarm.  The rule we learned is when your box is about 80% full, you need to add another box on top to ensure that they have room.

Summer time is a time that you really want to stay cognizant of what is going on.  There is something called the "honey flow."  What that means is that when the weather gets nice and the flowers start blooming, there is plenty of access to nectar and good flying weather to go get it.  That's what's known as the flow.  People have weighed their hives and found that it is not unconceivable to have your hive increase in weight as much as 5 pounds per day.  You read that right!  Hundreds and hundreds of bees leave the hive and return full on nectar.  The brood nest grows and the honey production increases.  I like to sit outside the hives and watch the take-offs and landings.

In our area, the first thing to bloom is white dutch clover.  This has been blooming for quite some time.  The real big thing that makes the flow take place is the blooming of the Chinese Tallow Trees.  We have a lot of them in our area.  The tree was brought over for ornamental uses in the 1700's.  They spread over time and now are considered an invasive species.  I've always hated them.  They will take over pastureland in no time.  They make many seeds and birds will carry them and the tallow trees will sprout along fence lines.  In no time you have problems.  

Before this year, I could only think of one redeeming quality of the Chinese tallow tree.  For a very brief time in the fall, their leaves turn colors - from yellow to orange and then to red.  Beautiful!  But that's it.  However, bees love them.  They flower and the bees get nectar and make lots and lots of honey from the Chinese tallow tree.

We have some that border the fence line between us and the neighbor to the south and also in the little patch of woods directly behind the pasture.  You can see the Chinese tallow tree blooming below with its long yellow flowers.

The tallow tree has caused me considerable work over the years, trying to keep pasture land free of their invasion, so I've never even looked at their flowers.  It was always a nuisance tree.  Now I see that even dark clouds have silver linings.  Bees love them!

I captured a photo below of (perhaps) one of our honeybees collecting nectar off of this tallow tree's flower:

She'll take that nectar back to one of the hives and we'll hopefully make honey this year.  Since getting into beekeeping, I'm much more cognizant of making sure that the pollinators have flowers.  I've cut back substantially on mowing the grass.  I've also been planting more flowers in the area.  I planted a 40 foot row of Lemon Queen Sunflowers and they're starting to bloom now:

Can't wait to pull honey for the first time later this summer!