Good afternoon! During this time, bees are usually awaiting the fall harvest of pollen. The plants here that provide that (goldenrod, ragweed, gourds, squashes, asters, etc) can be slow to appear, from year to year. The bees are often thirsty and hungry since the summer flush of plants. If you want to provide them with something, a birdbath filled with pebbles, marbles along with water,(to keep them from drowning, will give them a water source in drought conditions and lean times. Sugar water (1/2 water, 1/2 sugar, not HFCS!). Can give them the energy to keep flying until nectar an pollen sources become abundant again. Thanks for asking, and caring ♡!
Discussion
We’re on it! There is plenty of water around, the fermented mash seems to attract them as well, and it correlates with what you are saying, lots of available dissolved sugars. We as a family must all be sweet, because we apparently smell like sugar to the bees. It’s an interesting phenomenon for a family of keto and fasting adherents. Blood sugar is sugar I suppose, no matter the source. Maybe it’s all the beer we drink. Decidedly not keto, but oh so good. Thank you! 😉
There are those who repel and attract bees, dogs, cats, birds, and quite a few others of the animal/insect world. Thanks for not swatting or bothering them. You are sweet-blooded peeps, and it is detectable by them in your perspiration. Also, they see electromagnetic waves (imho), and can detect angry energy, peaceful energy and so on.
That’s really interesting. I’ve been told I flood the room with blue energy upon entering, I’ve never quite been entirely sure what that means, but different people and circumstances. The bees must like it, because everywhere I go they come hovering in and land on me. I just worry I’ll not know they are there and well we know how that usually ends.
I have heard of the Indigo Children, and I am particularly fond of purple, so I can dig it!
The bees landing randomly and regularly on you is a valid concern. I have no answer, except to spray garlic juice all over yourself to repel them LOL, sadly, this repels most everyone else in your life too!
Lol. Maybe it’s time to have a hive or two ourselves. Any merit to the flow hives or are they hype? I think I’d prefer to design it for undisturbed longevity rather than suiting up and disassembling if that’s possible. We recently travelled through AL on a trip recently. Have you lived there long?
Not sure I understand the dissembling part of your question/ statement…? Flow Hive is legit, expensive, and perfect for the backyard beekeeper. Barre hives are good if you don’t plan to pull out frames, or disturb the bees (more for pollination than honey harvesting). We have the typical Longstroth hives (100), which work well for honey production and also backyard beekeepers too.
Born and bred here. From Birmingham, but resident of Fairhope for 35 years. I hope “we” were sweet and hospitable to you, during your visit to Alabama. Some of us can be knuckle-dragging mouth breathers, but there are quite a few pleasant natives, too.
Great information, thank you. I have a rough and rudimentary understanding of the processes surrounding the apiary process. I’d like to have some honey production, but I’ve always wanted to avoid having to take the frames out and disturb the hive to harvest the honey. I will do more reading about Barre and Longstroth hives. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. We’re a legacy west coast family, Alabama was really nice, welcoming, and felt a lot like home, here in the Northern California grasslands, though I have rarely met people who were more polite than those there. There are a few knuckle-dragging mouth breathers here too! lol!
Good to hear 🤣! I would go online and get with your local beekeeping association, ask some questions based on your profile, then you can get some insights on the best equipment, costs, time-consumption. Seasons are shorter in some areas of the country. What we do in August, in South Alabama will differ from west coast practices in August, for example. Site conditions such as prevalent winds, or mists, will affect hives and placement of them.
You mentioned mash, are you a moonshiner LOL?
Well, I’m tempted to call our place the drunken Boar ‘N Sow ranch because we ferment the grain and sometimes it smells pretty strong and they lay down immediately and sleep it off. I try to throw the process to anaerobic lactobacillus, but yeast is pretty pervasive and persistent. Seriously though, I do make some moonshine occasionally for our family and have been considering using a mead as mash. I think if it’s done right the product would contain the nuances of the honey source botanicals and that could be amazing.
Shine on! Seriously, mead is too sweet for us, so if you could strike a balance between sweet and sour, that would be amazing.
Same sentiment, but sweet stays behind in clear liquor, the esters carry through. I think it might have real potential. 😊
Soused sows you say? Boozed up boars? Sounds lit! Love it!