Best Plants For Bees

In addition to the benefits we've already explored, honey works brilliantly as a natural cough suppressant. For seasonal allergy sufferers, local, raw honey may be the answer to your prayers for relief.

Filipendulina , or fern-leaf yarrow, is another prized plant in my garden. Of the hundreds of different perennials I grow in my garden, common yarrow ( Achillea millefolium ) is a personal favorite.

Queen's Attendants Very few worker bees get the honor of attending the queen . A single worker bee transitions into a new hive role with each life stage, starting with the role of nurse bee and concluding as one of the foragers you see out and about gathering...

These little creatures pollinate upwards of $3 billion in crops each year, a number that could rise if we all start promoting and preserving these amazing insects. Now, when he watches the many native bees buzzing around his cranberry fields, he says,...

The more variety in flowering plants in the colony's foraging radius, the more variety of pollen the bees consume, and the better the hive's health. So how does the pollen reach the stigma?

We know that one of the main jobs of the honeybee is to collect nectar and pollen. Bees actively forage for these elements, too. Foraging bees collect propolis from a wide variety of tree sources, gathering the natural resin from new buds and tree sap.

Read up! Now's the time to brush up on beekeeping literature and read the latest in honeybee and beekeeping research. Many orders for packages or nucs (short for nucleus colony) are filled in December and January.

They're social bees that live in colonies and nest in cavities. Mason bees are also sold commercially as brood cells in paper tubes. Bumblebees These easily recognizable bees visit a variety of crops and are active from early spring until late fall.

All winter long, the bees try to stay warm and they eat their “preserves.” While we have pickled beets , frozen beans and a side of beef, the bees have various types of pollen and honey stores.

Do your part to help save the bees with help from HobbyFarms.com: 4 Tips to Rescue a Honey Bee Swarm 4 Ways to Invite Bees to Your Orchard 21 Plants that Feed Spring-Feverish Bees 4 Ways to Keep Bees More Naturally 4 Ways You Could Be Hurting Your Bees—and...

Food travels through the hive quickly. There is a constant flow of communication from the queen and her attendants (several dozen bees that care for her and tend to her needs), sending the queen's pheromones out through the hive in a ripple effect, through...

Some provide one or the other, but the bees will require both to get energy and begin feeding a new population of workers. After spending all winter cooped up indoors with several thousand family members, the worker bee understandably has a serious case...

It's a straightforward way to create habitat.” 4. “These crops are pollinated by a large, solitary bee called the squash bee. If you are tired of mowing a field edge, think about installing a permanent hedgerow that, outside of some initial weeding,...

Smaller Boxes “The fact is as you get older, things get harder to lift,” Bush says, and several of his simplification methods support this notion. Natural Feed When you let your bees feed on honey instead of artificial feed, not only do you ensure...

Plant a few extra of each of your favorite herbs for the bees so you may continue your own harvest through the season. For the home gardener or farmer, the tough part is sitting back and allowing your herbs to bolt and flower.

The old queen may have been crushed or died of other causes; a queen may get lost during inspections and not make her way back to the hive; or a virgin queen may not make it home from her virgin flight.

They have a lifetime many times greater than their worker daughters—2 to 5 years depending on the conditions of the hive. The majority of queens only make this flight once; however, a very small percentage have been known to go back out to a DCA to...

However, 2010 saw better weather across the Midwest to the Dakotas, resulting in improved local honey production. A recent collaboration among bee specialists, fungal pathologists, virologists and chemists, stretching across universities and the U.S

“You didn't tell the bees ,” he said. The folklore and legends that have followed the honeybee throughout history are a testament to the magic she brings to the human world. They considered honeybees bringers of wisdom and revered them for their role...

This is because the result of foraging—pollination—is one of the hive's byproducts that we humans benefit from the most (the other being honey production, of course). This work, flying hundreds of miles per day, will eventually leave its wings torn...

Unfortunately for the bees, early beekeepers usually couldn't remove honeycomb unless they killed the colony with burning sulfur or boiling water. When bees gather nectar from a wide variety of nectar plants—as they do for most hobby beekeepers—the...

The queen is responsible for every new generation of honeybees. What Happens When There's No Queen? Virgin queens take mating flights when they hatch from their queen cells. She is cared for and surrounded day and night by her “attendant” bees.

While honey provides carbohydrates for the bees throughout the year, pollen is their critical protein source. Honeybees don't mean to gather pollen . As she grooms herself (mid-flight!), adding digestive enzymes along the way, the pollen collects into...

As you decide how to use your excess honey, take a moment to marvel at the efforts of those worker bees—they're the reason you have the honey, after all. It might seem unimaginable, but if your bees had a good year, they can produce more honey than...

Before cane sugar was inserted into every packaged good–and before the synthesizing of corn into high-fructose corn syrup–pure, raw honey was one of the sweetest foods a human could enjoy.

There were only four bees and it seemed as if each bee was continually going in and out of the same hole. The tip of each abdomen bowed upwards, and I noticed that a few of them were carrying pieces of leaf as they flew into the hole.

If possible, control pests instead by using integrated-pest-management techniques , which do not require the use of pollinator-toxic chemicals. Research the pollinators living in your area and the flowers that can best support their livelihood.