Got some catching up on some bloom dates. Let's start with White Clover. It was the second Sunday in Jan when I first spotted White Clover in bloom. I did not see it on the farm as the clover I planted is not yet mature enough to bloom, but in Leesville at the Lowes in the parking lot. At that point I began seeing it more and more as the days went by.
It was also about that time that I saw Dandelions blooming in Rapides Parish, the neighboring Parish to the east of the farm. For some reason Dandelions have not naturalized here in Vernon Parish very well. My guess is because of the abundance of pine tree forests owned by timber companies who spray huge amounts of pesticides everywhere. However, I am growing some dandelions from seeds this winter and plan on planting them in my yard soon in Hope's that they will begin to naturalize here on the farm.
On Feb 1st I finally laid eyes on proof of what I had suspected for about a week. That is, i finally saw bees working some Red Maple blooms. I promptly went home, opened the hives, and viola my queens were all laying.
This past week, Feb 23-29, I noticed the Huckleberry bushes beginning to bloom and the blueberries looked to be days behind them. Also, just today I saw Redbud trees pushing out their red buds.
Spring is here and the forecast is warm weather (60+ days/40+ nights) for the next 2 weeks. So I'm thinking this weekend may be a good time to start making a few splits and putting on some hive top feeders.
Don't you just love this time of year!?
Today I went through my hives looking to see how well they were doing. In September of 2019 I had 14 colonies. Five of those colonies were very late splits I had done in August and September that never did thrive. As it stands I have 9 colonies, but two of those colonies were queenless as I inspected them today. I gave both of those colonies a frame of brood and the bees that were on the frames. I'll check those colonies in 10 days to see if they made a queen.
I will be trying my hand at selling a few queens this year. Just a few. If you are interested in buying some queens I will be posting on my facebook page when they will be available. The page is West Louisiana Bee Farm.
Why would you want to purchase the queens I'll be raising? First of all I never treat my bees with chemicals or essential oils. I never medicate. I never put anything in the hive other that frames, wax, and some plastic foundation. All of my bees are from wild caught swarms and bee removals from homeowners. My bees are considered local mutts, but this only means that they have adapted to the hot summers, high humidity, and extremely damp winters here in west central Louisiana. These are tough bees!
Another reason you will want to consider my queens is that they will not be mass produced, but each queen will come from her mother"s colony, selected and raised by her sisters, is the victorious queen of the "new queen war", mated with local feral bees, and allowed to lay eggs for at least two weeks before being sold. This is a more natural process proven to create much better queens.
One more reason to consider West LA Bee Farm Queens, there are many other beekeepers in the local area that keep VSH (varroa sensitive hygene) bees. Although there is no guarantee that my queens have in the past or will in the future mate with the local VSH drones, there is a high probability that they have and will.
So there you have! Go to our facebook page and follow if you are interested in adding West Louisiana genetics to your apiary. I will post when there are queens ready, and the first person to respond via Messenger will have first chance at the queens.
Thanks for stopping by! Happy beekeeping!!
Some people get excited about the Christmas Season. Some people get excited about hunting season. Not me....the thing that I get excited about is swarm season, And even though it is a bit early I do believe it is upon us!
The picture above was taken today on the bee farm, Feb 1, 2020 about 15 miles east of Leesville, La. If you are new to beekeeping and are wondering about the significance of the above picture, it is a picture of a scout honey bee. Scout bees look for (among other things) sources of forage, water, tree sap, and new housing for the colony . This particular scout bee is looking for new housing for a colony that is about to swarm.
How do I know that this particular bee is a scout bee? Two reasons really. Reason #1 is because of the time of year. The first big pollen flow is going on right now. The swamp maple is in full bloom, and when that happens during a warm winter like we have been having this year it can trigger the queen to start laying more heavily. When she starts laying more heavily this will trigger the rest of the colony to start preparing to propagate meaning they will want to make two colonies out of one. This is the natural activity for a healthy colony this time of year.
Reason #2 is the fact that bees are drawn to certain things as far as housing goes. If you can grab their attention you will greatly increase your odds of capturing a swarm. How do you grab their attention? I use lemon grass oil on a q-tip placed inside a box with room enough to be home to a young colony.
These two reasons are at work together in this picture. The box is a Kenyan Top-Bar swarm trap and it is baited with Lemon Grass oil. Why does Lemon Grass oil work? Because it smells exactly like the pheromone that a queen bee emits. This grabs the attention of scout bees, then they are drawn to your box. Once their they will inspect the box, record the data (location/hive measurements), and then bring that info back to the colony. Once the new queen emerges from her cell back at the old hive, the old queen and half of the colony are evicted and will travel to the newly found home. Viola! You now have a new healthy honey bee colony!
We here in the south are on the cusp of the swarm season 2020, and I am giddier than a kid at Christmastime. FREE BEES! And folks, that is something to be excited about. These early swarms carry with them the potential of providing you with harvestable honey in their first season. Not only that, but capturing your own bees in your local area like this insures that you have healthy bees that are adapted to your local climate.
So what are you waiting for? Get those swarm traps out! Get them baited up with Lemon Grass oil. It is TIME!!
Around the bee farm I keep swarm traps set up all year long. Even though there is a specific season for catching swarms, usually from Feb or March through to about September, there have been instances here in Louisiana that beekeepers have caught swarms all the way to December. For this reason I keep traps up throughout the year. That, and its just easier to leave them up LOL.
Get out those swarm traps and make sure you get the purest Lemon Grass oil available to catch your bees. Below is the exact oil I use. My results are great with this brand.
