The Bees are Happy, so I'm Happy!

May 1, 2012

Dashed out to the farm to check on the bees and create a bird deterent for the sunflowers. The bees needed some more sugar water. The existing hive went throught 2 quarts in 2 days, the new hives not as much. My mixture is a 1:1 ratio (by volume) of sugar and water. I went through 25lbs of sugar in about 2 weeks, which is also roughly 6 gallons of mix. I hope that they will soon find more nectar in the field and lose interest in the sugar water. I don't consider sugar water all that healthy for the bees because it just isn't the same as nectar. Last year, my original hive lost interest in the sugar water on or around the second week of May. I guess the nectar isn't out there in sufficient quantity, yet.  Regardless, tonight the bees seemed happy, so I am happy!

James Wilkes of Faith Mountain Farm near Creston, North Carolina, tied a taught string above his not yet emerged sunflowers to discourage the birds from eating the tops of the newly emerged seedlings.  Based on his experience, I decided to give it a try over my recently planted sunflower seeds. The first batch of sunflowers were germinated in pots.  I really don't feel like dealing with pots and instead I am taking my chances in the existing plot.  Ramona potted the first seeds and took care of moving the pots outside in the morning and inside every evening to avoid the cold nights.

It is my understanding that Wilkes is a professor at Appalachian State University.  In addition to his professorship he and his family have an interesting farm and bee operation you might want to check out at www.faithmtnfarm.com.   He has also posted a lot of youtube videos of various topics including his sunflower operation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vo6AFfv4ts.