Hello Mary,
 
I have fawn memories of Benicia and the time I spent there behind bars and
locked up during WW II at boarding school planning the "great escape" and
catching my first honeybees off the wildflowers that come each spring. Did
not make good my escape so well planned by my 2nd and 3rd grade classmates,
we were going to run off and dig gold out of the hills, but I did get a few
bee stings and my knuckles rapped more then once by the black cape'd guards
who were nuns for picking the bees off the flowers and a few other's pockets.
 
Your area should have adequate spring wildflowers to build up your hive and
any flowering plants you have in your garden will be enjoyed by your bees
and give yourself great pleasure watching them work. One beehive will work
the flowers of your and your neighbors yards for several miles and may
produce in the summer a crop of very nice Yellow Star Thistle honey which
is mild flavored and light in color and is considered by many the best.
 
You may also have Blue Gum and other eucalyptus trees in your area that
also can produce some surplus honey during the late winter and early
spring. It also is light in color and has the distinct flavor of all
eucalyptus honey produced in California and kind of grows on you. One of my
favorite honey's is Sage-Blue Gum mixed by the bees which my bees produced
when I was a teen ager and should have been chasing girls and not swarms.
 
Vitex grows good here in Central California and grows into a very large
almost small tree sized bush. I would not plant it unless I had room for a
large hedge, ours is almost as big as the Russian olive trees planted at
the same time. The bees do work it but I have never seen any honey from it.
It also can be the subject of attack by strangers because it's leaves can
easily be mistaken for Mary Jane or Wacky Tobacco. I have myself dried the
leaves and tried to smoke them but ended up using it in my smoker for
fuel.<G>
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
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