FEEDING HONEYBEES IN DECEMBER

Ont the menu today: Warm herbal sugar syrup with a side of pollen substitute

More about this delightful meal in a few sentences but first, here's a bit of information about honeybees that I hope you are already aware of but if not, you will bee!

Honeybees are SO important to our survival and if you're not sure about that let me ask you this, "Do you like to eat?"

If your answer is, "Yes," you need to understand that without those little, hardworking pollinators, much of the food we find in our markets would be missing! Almonds, cherries, apples, squash, potatoes, plums, gapes and more are all created in harmony with the plants and honeybees!

It is vitally important that we humans understand the importance of keeping these hardworking, industrious creatures alive and well - not just for their sake but for our sake, too!

Here in North Carolina, although it was a bit chilly today (55-ish), it was plenty warm enough for forager honeybees to leave their hives and go looking for food sources. During late fall and early, warm winter days, although the temperature may be suitable for the bees to break cluster and fly, there really isn't much blooming for them to gather their food from so I, like many apiarists, feed them.

Since I am also an herbalist, my bees are treated to a combination of herbal sugar syrups that I blend to help them not just survive the winter months but hopefully thrive, and I also put out a pollen substitute that they are welcome to partake of if needed. What are some of my favorite plants to feed my bees??? Well, I love rosemary and ginger this time of year because they are warming plants with antimicrobial properties both are useful during the cold months to help the bees stay well. In fact, these two lovely and versatile plants have much to offer us humans, too, but that's a different post.

Onward....

As an apiarist, I feel a big responsibility to help educate my fellow humans about the plight of these extremely important creatures, which means I'll bee posting information about the needs of honeybees, along with photos and videos of these fascinating creatures in action. We need our pollinators and they need us to employ good stewardship practices to protect their living quarters (our earth), their health, and ultimately our living quarters (our earth) and us.

Please follow me as I share good living practices to protect the smallest of creatures (our insect populations) that in turn will protect the bigger creatures like you and me.

Attached is a picture of an open feeding station I filled up for the honeybees on this beautiful, December day in North Carolina. When the temperature rises above 50 degrees during the winter, the forager bees go looking for food and will fill up on the herbal sugar syrup I make for them. They take the syrup back to their hives to add to their food stores (honey and pollen) that are needed to survive during the winter months ahead when they can't fly to look for food sources.

Should honeybees run out of food stores during the winter months, or any month for that matter, they will die.

So now, it's your turn! If you have a place where you can set up a late fall thru early spring feeding station for the honeybees, PLEASE DO!

It's super easy to add plenty of sticks or rocks to a shallow baking dish to create solid supports above the syrup level for the bees to land on so they won't drown (I use pine straw, rocks and wheat straw) and then make the syrup by bringing a half gallon (or more) of water to just below boiling (do NOT boil the water) add then adding enough white sugar to double (1:1) or triple (2:1) the volume in the pot. Stir the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and bottle it so it won't spill all over you as you transport it to your feeding station area. Pour it out and keep watch. If you have a warm enough day and honeybees are in your neck 'o the woods, you'll begin to see the scouts come check out your gift, take a sip and then fly back to their hive to alert the other bees to the location of the newly found food source. It is so satisfying to give back to our fellow man and of course our pollinators and I'm sure this act of kindness will be one of your favorite gifts this holiday season, to the bees and YOU, too!

Until next time....Bee... happy, healthy, grateful and responsible!