24 May 1, 2014 2014 SPRING HOME AND GARDEN “OUT OF THE ORDINARY” LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.COM
soon-to-be 6-year-old son is a
little too young yet, Clay likes
the bees and is allowed to help
in some of the safer processes.
Corey’s dad, Don, has been
raising bees for 25 years.
Don has been surprised the past
couple of years,
given the poor weather
conditions and drought, how
the honey production has been
relatively good, at 800 and
600 pounds a year. The family
typically hosts approximately
seven hives.
The winter just past was hard
on bees, and there were a lot of
losses related to the cold; some
starved, some froze. Also, bees
won’t defecate in the hive. There
were not enough warm days of
40 to 50 degrees when the bees
could get out.
Another thing that Don suggests
is to vent a hive. During the
winter, you can open a hive
and find bees frozen in a block
of crystals. Venting helps to
prevent condensation.
Rich Ramsey of the Illinois
State Beekeepers Association
spoke in Lincoln this spring
during the Russel Allen Garden
Day, sponsored by University
of Illinois Extension Master
Gardeners. Ramsey shared these
bits about bees:
• Bees collect pollen to feed the
young that are in the hive near
the queen. They also collect
nectar, which after digestion
becomes honey used for food
and for storage in the hive.
• A bee will return again and
again to the same food source
and will not change until that
resource has dried up. If you see
a bee on an apple blossom, that
same bee will continue on apple
blossoms and not go to another
type of blossom.
• A bee makes as many as 500
trips a day to the hive.
• You should plant for bloom
times in succession. Plant in
masses or bundled areas to aid
the bees in efficiency.
• A bee can travel up to a 2-mile
radius of the hive.
• One of many oddities: You can
move a hive 2 feet or 2 miles.
If you move it more than 2 feet,
the bees can’t find it, because
bees use landmarks like trees to
find the hive.
• Avoid the use of pesticides and
herbicides.
• If you must, such as with
cucumber and pumpkin
blossoms, dust with Sevin in
the evening, after the bees have
gone to bed.
• Avoid the use of fungicides.
• Bees love blooms from weeds
like dandelions and clovers.
• Bees need daily water. Sources
that do well: a garden pond,
troughs with moss on the side,
and flat dishes with a few sticks
for landing and kept filled with
water.
• The phrase “a bee’s space”
comes from bees filling any
three-eighths-inch space with
honey; they will fill larger or
smaller spaces with wax.
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