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2011 Queen Honey Bees

Oh very nice - you got a field of flowers too? :grin:
 
Nope, just surrounded by a desert full of Mesquite trees and other wildflowers. The wildflowers usually only come out after lots of rain, which rarely happens.
 
But then how do you feed your bees?
 
That's really awesome! I just started beekeeping last year, sadly I just had an august swarm someone gave me so as you can imagine it didn't make it through the winter. I get my new bees next weekend though, I'm excited! How long have you been keeping bees?
 
thez_yo,
There is always some Creosote Bush blooming, and Mesquite blooms from 15April until the last week of June or first week of July. Bees are experts at bringing in the nectar and pollen when it is available and storing it to use when nothing is available.

xQuinnx,
I've been a beekeeper a few years longer than I've been into CP (I got my first CP in 1969). I've been fascinated by honey bees since about 1964, when I was nine, but I didn't get my first bees until 1965. I've been purposefully raising queen bees for about four years now.
 
That's awesome =)
 
I wish that I would have know you while I was living in arizona I have always been very interested in bees and bee keeping. I just wanted to go out and help with hives and learn about the bees. I am not the most comfortable around bees and wasps, I have no problem with venomous snakes and other terrestrial bugs but when they can fly at you it changes things a bit.
Do you have issues with your hives over the heat of the summers in tucson?
 
WOW, what does honey made from Mesquite and Creosote taste like!? I'm imagining like a sweet charcoal briquette! LOL

Up here we get clover and apple honey quite regularly and very rarely wildflower honey. I wonder if honey made from bees visiting my Datura and Brugmansia plants would be as poisonous as the plant themselves?
 
  • #10
Doesn't that put you at odds - growing plants that consume your bees? :)
 
  • #11
Nice! I keep bees too. Last year my bees were a little insane, so this year I have to start with some creative beekeeping to undo what they did... Mostly I'm just going to trash a bunch of frames. How many hives you have?
 
  • #12
Mesquite honey is awesome. Least its Hawaii relative Prosopis pallida makes super tasting honey. just it tends to crystallize fairly quickly. End up with a jar with a block of sugar inside.....
 
  • #13
Nice! What sort of bees are they? Do you have to requeen often to prevent the hive being africanized?

Beekeeping is another hobby I'm interested in and have studied up on a bit but haven't made the leap yet. I hope to start when the kids start going off to college so that we aren't going into debt just trying to keep the bottomless pits fed!! :jester:
Jenn
 
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