Why I DON'T Plant Flowers for my Bees

guys on today's video we are back out here with  the bees and I want to address one of the most   common comments that I received on the honey  extracting video it was two videos ago that   I posted that so we'll get into that in just  a minute first I want to check on the little   split that we made last time this is the little  split that we made on that last honey extracting   video if you remember if you've seen that video  you'll remember that basically what happened is   I was going through these hives trying to find  honey and I just happened to come across a queen   honeybee on the back side of this other Hive over  here I don't know where she came from don't know   where she was going uh but either way I got  a free Queen out of it and we put it put her   in this box and took some frames from some other  hives and managed to make a split now I have not   been in this Hive I've lifted the lid up a few  times just to kind of look at it from the top   but I haven't dug into this Hive since then that  means it's been I think about a week maybe six   days or so so let's tear into it and see we want  to see a couple things of course we want to love   the queen is still in there and if she is is she  laying eggs yet you can see here we've got good   traffic coming in and out at the front of the  hive which is a really really good sign I don't   hear any kind of a drone going on inside of the  hive that would indicate that they don't have a   queen I did have a feeder on this Hive a day or a  couple days after I made the split but there ended   up being a lot of traffic out here on the hive  so I was kind of concerned that I would spur a   robbing situation so I took that off so let's go  ahead and tear into it I'm going to attempt this   without a bee suit because hopefully they're calm  today but let's see what we got it is a hot day   today guys goodness it's hot and super bright  too give them a little bit of smoke not much it's the time of year you've got to be very  careful with your smoker because you can start   a grass fire so quick so quick with a smoker so  one of the things that I'm seeing that's very   encouraging is there as a very fairly good  population of bees in this Hive one of the   concerns of making splits like this so close to  the mother Hive is the fact that a lot of them are   going to go back but it looks like that a lot of  them have stayed good population in this Hive here we'll just set that frame to the side so  I can have a little room to work in here   and I do hope they stay calm because  bees do prefer to sting faces and stuff I'm not seeing a queen just yet oh there she  is she is in here that's great she made it she's hard to keep up with I'm trying to show you oh there she is right there there she is so it really is a big deal that she is in  there and alive but mainly we want to know   if she is laying eggs yet and I have seen a  couple of eggs but I'd love to see a few more   in a consistent pattern of eggs so let's keep  looking here and see what we can find hope that   y'all can see this here let me get some of these  bees out of the way so there we go so we got a   lot of capped brood in this Frame and that of  course is from the mother Hive and these cells   that you see that are open along in here those  cells are empty they don't have I'm not seeing   no I'm not seeing anything in those cells at all  now this Frame here does have a few eggs in it   I'll try to get an up close shot to show you all  but there are a few eggs in this in this Frame   not a lot though not as many as I would have liked  to have seen but she has begun laying eggs which   is encouraging she's actually on that frame right  there she's a runny thing she loves to run around so guys I'm not totally sure what just  happened here because I obviously wasn't   paying attention that's probably why this  happened so while I was looking for frames   to get a good view of the eggs and  stuff somehow I smashed the queen so I guess that's the end of this box man   so guys I have moved to a shady spot behind the  beehives here it is a scorcher of a day today   and I wanted to stand in the shade to talk to  the camera instead of out in the sunlight and I   did not get any video of the eggs in that Hive  I just put it all back together I think there   was some discouragement that went along with  killing that queen as you as you might imagine   um but I did want to talk about those eggs and  really The Brood and the beehive in general   because I I pull frames out of hives a lot and  I talk about The Brood but I don't think I don't   know that I've ever really explained what The  Brood is so The Brood in a beehive is everything   from the egg to The larva to the pupa everything  before the bee hatches so basically what happens   is the queen comes around and she will lay an egg  in a cell and it looks like a very very tiny grain   of rice down in the bottom of that cell and that  egg will spin three days as as an egg and the next   stage is a larvae it looks like a little worm down  in the bottom of that cell and the Egg will spin   or The larva rather will be a larva for five days  and then that hatches out into a pupa which looks   a little more like a little bee and that pupil  will spend 13 days as a pupa and a credit to the   apiarist for those for those links of time there  that was really really good information that's the   apiarist.org there if y'all are interested um so  the queen I uh I managed to smash that Queen which   is a shame I have I have not killed very many  queens in the years that I have been beekeeping uh   and it was it it happened sometimes I guess I just  wasn't paying enough attention but I'm gonna try   to make some lemonade out of this situation I'm  in contact right now with a queen supplier and I'm   gonna try to get maybe five Queens sell all of the  honey that we've produced this year which wasn't   a whole lot and pay for five new Queens put a new  Queen in that Hive and split the other hives and   get some more colonies going here so we can maybe  up our honey production and speaking of Honey   production that's what I wanted to talk about  in this video mainly so one of the most common   comments that I got on the honey processing or  extracting video that I put out two videos ago was   do you plant anything for the bees or do you think  you should start planting something for the bees   or maybe you should plant something for the bees  or whatever and I get that comment it a lot and I   really do think that it comes from it comes from  a good place it comes from a well-meaning place   people want to help the bees bees are susceptible  to lots of different things that can kill them and   why not help them out right so I really do believe  that it comes from a good place trying to help out   the bees because they're so so beneficial to  us but I wanted to address why it's really not   a practical solution four beekeepers to up honey  production or pollen production or whatever now   and I I don't want to disparage somebody who is  maybe looking to plant some pollinator friendly   crops in their backyard or in their flower beds  to attract pollinators because that's kind of a   cool thing right it helps out the bees and you can  go out and you can watch honeybees feeding around   your house which is super super cool and also  don't want to disparage a small time beekeeper   like myself who wants to plant stuff for the bees  because if you do that you're really not hurting   anything right it's not like you're really not  hurting anything more power to you but as far   as honey production goes that's not a practical  solution to increasing honey production or pollen   production or whatever your goal might be and I've  got a list of reasons why that is the first reason   and I think this is probably the most important  reason is just the foraging area of honeybee so   honeybees were created to forage right their  natural born foragers that's just what they   do and they can travel anywhere from two to four  miles I have actually read that in a a rough year   a very dry year they can actually go up to five  miles to try to find resources for their hive a   two mile radius from a beehive if a bee flies two  miles in one direction from The Hive another bee   out of that Hive flies the opposite direction  that is a Four mile diameter right that is an 8   000 acre area that those bees are foraging after  and if you plant one single acre of anything in   front of your hives that is just a drop in the  bucket of what they're actually what is actually   available to them so planting a very small area  in front of the hives or close to the hives   in comparison to what they've actually got  available in the wild that is not going to   up production in the least a second reason is  just the limited area that most beekeepers are   going to have available so this this area right  here that I am on is a 53 acre property but only   five acres of that are actually cleared land and  available to be planted in something and if you're   a backyard beekeeper or something like that you  might you might have like half an acre or an acre   total so there's just not a whole lot of space  in the first place on which to plant crops even   if I planted all 53 Acres that's still a drop  in the bucket to the 8 000 Acres that they're   foraging in the first place a third issue is that  different plants bloom at different times so this   is the University of Georgia's website which has  a list of the different things in Georgia that's   my area there were things in Georgia that bloom  either to provide nectar or pollen to honeybees   and if we start in February February start it's  red maple then it goes to Red Bud March native   blueberry canola 10 bit into April you've got  Tupelo an apple and black locust and blackberry   April and May you've got crimson clover Dutch  Clover red clover you get into may you get privet   and Rhododendron and the list goes on and on so my  point here is that different things are blooming   and ceasing to bloom at different times so if  I were to plant whole bunches of clover around   here they would only have a very small window  in which to forage from that Clover now having   said that I plant food plots on this property  and the seed mix that I use does have clover in   it and to be fair they tear that Clover up they  really really enjoy that Clover and so it's not   like it's a totally wasted effort for the bees but  it's a small window I would actually have to plant   a variety of different things in order to  stretch out the usefulness of my plantings   now if you haven't gotten totally bored with this  video here's my fourth reason my fourth reason is   and I'm probably gonna have to explain this one  because it I don't think I wrote it down very   well there are no massive self-contained  Honey Farms now what I mean by that is   there are no Farms that are 1 000 Acre Farms  with a thousand beehives on it which both raise   bees and plant crops which are self-contained on  those Farms so we have corn Farms right we have   these massive Thousand Acre plus corn farms and  soybean farms and so on and so forth and those   places produce tons and tons and bushels and  bushels of corn and soybeans and so on and so   forth but we don't see Honey Farms that specialize  in one particular thing that they have planted   which tells me it's probably not a practical  approach because I feel like if it were a   practical approach that would be these gargantuan  Honey Farms all over the place doing exactly that   producing crops very specific crops and selling  those very specific crops we don't see that   what we do see is beekeepers trekking bees all  literally all over the country there are thousands   and thousands of beehives that migrate to  California cornea deer in the Almond pollination   time and there are thousands of beehives that head  to different areas in in the mountains to get sour   wood honey and then there's folks that truck their  hives to different places to get Tupelo honey and   gallberry honey and clover honey and all these  different things but they're not planting things   on a farm they're transporting the bees to the  things that are already growing and I feel like   if it was a if it was a practical way to do it  we would actually see huge farms with bees and   with whatever planted for the bees all right guys  Fifth and final reason I promise I'm almost done   here Fifth and final reason that I don't think  planting things for your bees is a practical   solution to increasing honey production so it's  a three-part reason Logistics cost and time and what I mean by this is so in order to go do  this and to really get the best return I'd have   to do it right which means I would have to go  out and I would have to get the soil ready to   plant I would have to spray herbicide to kill  the grass so that other things could actually   grow I would might have to put lime down to get  the pH right I would have to use fertilizer or   manure to amend the soil so that things would  actually grow I would have to buy seeds I would   have to burn lots and lots of diesel fuel in the  tractor to accomplish these things I would have   to burn gas in the truck going to pick up these  things or I would have to pay shipping costs to   get these things shipped out to me Logistics my  equipment I've got a tractor and a Hara those   are probably the two main things that I would need  but I might want to improve things I might want to   get a cultipacker or some kind of a planter things  would be constantly breaking and that costs money   to fix time it will take a lot of time and I've  got other things to do I would I would actually   much rather spend that time planting food plots in  the fall for the deer than planting things for the   bees that I don't think is going to be a whole  lot of a return so those are my reasons I like   it or not those are the reasons that I have that  I don't believe planting things for your bees is a   practical solution again if you want to plant some  things in your flower beds or in your backyard   to attract pollinators by all means I don't  think there's anything wrong with that I think   that's a noble cause it certainly is not hurting  anything but I don't think it's a great solution   to increasing honey production or just all of a  sudden blowing up your honey production or pollen   production for your bees in a year um what do  y'all think let me know what you think I know   what a lot of y'all think because that's where I  got the motivation to do this video is I got a lot   of comments talking about planting things for the  bees but let me know what you think in the comment   section I hope you enjoyed this video this video  probably was not the probably was not in line   with popular opinion but it's it's kind of how I  feel about it let me know what you think in the   comments thank you for taking the time to watch  this video and I will see you all on the next one

Channel: Fall Line Ridge

Views: 42,562

Keywords: fall line ridge, honeybees, honey extraction, beekeeping, honey, DIY

Id: CkSwkXD247M

Length: 16min 56sec (1016 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2023