At 11:18 AM 9/8/97 -0700, Bill Truesdell wrote:
>Michael Reddell wrote:
>>
>> CALIFORNIA buckeye is the culprit.  The big "horse chestnut" trees that
>> most people think of are different, and apparently not a problem.
>
>> The only solution I know of is to move the bees during buckeye bloom.
>
>Excellent advice. Can only add that ABCand XYZ of Beekeeping also
>suggests feeding sugar syrup and bee collected pollen from other plants
>when the buckeyes are in bloom to dilute the buckeye nectar and pollen-
>if you cannot move the hive.
 
Its the nectar of the California Buckeye that kills the bees. When it is
really bad, (when the trees are bothered by aphids and/or other pests), you
can find dead bees on the ground under the trees, and on the blossoms
themselves. The Buckeye bees hatch out with deformed wings in extreme cases
after an initial kill of young bees that pile up in front of the hives. The
bees will eat the hair off of the effected bees making them look shinny.
The queens are also damaged and buckeye hives are hard to repair with added
bees or brood, or a new queen as long as the nectar is in the hive.
Preventing 100% of the pollen from entering the hive does not help and this
pollen when fed to other bees does not seem to affect them.
 
Feeding sugar syrup at the time of bloom does work mostly in the coastal
areas as the trees seem to effect the bees less there and in some years on
favored locations pure Buckeye Honey can be extracted. Its is white in
color and granulates in the comb if left until the Sage flow. In the Sierra
foothills the Buckeye seems to always be bad on the bees and moving away
from it is the best plan. At one time a old time bee breeder had a line of
bees that were not affected by Buckeye. I don't know if anyone continues
with them today, they were naturally dark gentle bees and very productive.
 
California Buckeye trees are very hardy and hard to kill. Beekeepers and
cattlemen have carried out several eradication attacks on them without much
success in the past. The cattlemen were interested because of a condition
they call "Buckeye calves", the cows abort late term or the calves are
deformed because they are believed to have eaten from the fruit of the
Buckeye tree.
 
The California Buckeye tree makes a nice yard tree and if irrigated will
keep its leaves longer then in the wild where they are dropped soon after
blooming unless it is a very wet year or they are growing with their roots
in water.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone