Kathy:

I am poor, Kathy: I have a meager ten-acre lot on which I had dragged a
doublewide to homestead.  I just happened to live on the edge between a
wooded area and a nearby farmland, an almost ideal location, for which we
did our research before we purchased our land, something I will always do
if I were to move again.  The pockets of woods provide many floral
sources, such as sumac, pseudo acacia robinia, persimmon, and even
hackberry during the summer nectar dearth; the farmland, alfalfa, soy, and
feeder-corn for pollen, among others, within three-mile radius.  [I have
yet to observe my bees work on that darn soy, though]

On the outskirt of this radius I keep another yard, the second one, on 650
acre Experimentation Farm [mostly ladino clover which produces a light
purplish juice], and about three and half miles outside this yard, I keep
the third one in the middle of huge alfalfa fields—sort of like a chain-
link.  To my best knowledge, there is one hobbyist keeping two colonies
near my home and several feral bees, whose locations I am well aware of.
In the future I am fix’n to split about 100 colonies evenly among these
three yards.  Anything beyond, I will disperse to other locations.

Lately a UPS guy volunteered to offer his near-the-bottom-land acreage to
get some honey from me; of course, I have already made enough splits to
move there come next spring.  On a totally different note, he related an
interesting anecdote that he used to feed his cattle *syrup* mostly made
of mint, a leftover from X-mas candy-making, and his former beekeeper-
friend got hot because his bees produced mint-flavored honey one year.
This was how the UPS guy lost the beekeeper.  He said about a decade ago
it was not an uncommon practice to buy truckload of this leftover syrup
and feed the cattle for a quick boost, a fact that seems to explain why
one can get a mint-honey although he/she may not live near a soft drink
packer nearby.  I can’t imagine cows with so much sweet meat on ‘em.


Yoon

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