Tuesday, the 15th, was the last day to feed the bees, at least in this part of the Champlain Valley. To ensure a sufficient supply of food to keep a colony healthy through the winter, a hive should weigh 160 or so pounds by now. Most of that’s honey, but to top off a hive, […]
If you just want the bottom line, you can stop reading. The headline said it all. If you like honey and want to keep eating it, buy it now before the price goes up. I attended the summer meeting of the Vermont Beekeepers Association Saturday and the main topic of conversation: no honey. No one’s […]
Skies are gray; temperatures are in the 40s. We had the first big downpour (liquid) in Burlington Sunday evening. I stood on the porch and watched the rain. Twigs on the crabapple trees glistened in the streetlights. It’s rare, I realized to see rain come down with no leaves on the trees. It’s not exactly […]
I’m busy this week and have many things on my mind and small bits of unfinished business, so while I usually restrict my commentaries to one topic, I’m going to borrow my friend Renee’s term and give you some Thursday gumbo – a little of everything. The good thing about beekeeping is you have ready […]
It’s been a bad year for bees. Too much rain in Vermont, honey production is way off. On the other hand, varroa mites don’t seem as bad this year, which may also be due to the rainy weather. Or maybe it’s part of the mites’ natural cycle. No one seems to know. For me, it’s […]
Rules of Pollination
After being diligent and never missing a Thursday for something like 16 years, I’ve started slipping off in these posts lately and though that bugs me, it’s just the way life goes sometimes. When his publisher suggested cutting his column from six to three days a week, the sportswriter Red Smith answered, “Suppose I wrote […]