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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
David Green <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 14 Dec 1998 08:36:22 EST
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In a message dated 12/14/98 3:48:53 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
 
> With the extremely warm fall and winter in the North Carolina mountains, =
>  the bees are remaining active - but with a strange twist - in our yard.  =
>  We have 5 chickens that we are feeding cracked corn and layer mash.  One =
>  day this week my son(owner of the bees) reported finding bees in the =
>  chicken feeder.  I went out thinking that he was mistaken and that there =
>  were yellow jackets making a nest in the chicken yard.  Indeed, both my =
>  bees(midnight bees) and others(Italians) were in the feeder and the =
>  surrounding area grubbing(for lack of a better word) in the layer mash.  =
>  I looked up the ingredients of the layer mash and found that they =
>  contain soy beans, amongst many other fine scientific words(vitamins, =
>  nothing else). =20
>          I don't think that my bees are in danger, as I think that they
> probably =
>  know what to feed on most of the time, but wonder if any of you have any =
>  experience with this.
 
   When pollen is scarce, bees will gather most any powdered material, even
sawdust, or dust on the dirt roads. It doesn't usually go on long, as it
happens more often in the spring, and spring flowers usually follow any warm
spell.
 
    Here in South Carolina, the pears were starting to blossom before the
weather finally turned seasonable. We had weeks of 70's and even a few 80's.
Very dry with a high fire danger. One of my yards is badly needing a burn off,
and I don't dare. The pine straw is crunchy. But if it burns when I'm not
around, I'll lose a lot of hives. Well, we finally got a little rain and
cooler weather, temporarily helping this problem.
 
>  BTW - the weather has finally turned cold in the last two days, and =
>  rained also.  The bees are staying at home more now.
>
     Some of the hives brooded up quite a bit during the warm spell; others
have no brood. In all cases they were highly active, meaning they ate a lot of
reserve food, much more than normal for this time of year. Watch out for a lot
of starvation late in the winter.
 
[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
The Pollination Home Page:    http://www.pollinator.com
 
Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm

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