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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Feeding wild bees during Winter - how to do it?

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  • From: Kelly Simmons <kelly@bouldersustainability.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Feeding wild bees during Winter - how to do it?
  • Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:36:58 -0600

Hi Lawrence - The best source of water for bees is one that is continually replenished, if possible. A spring, a dripping faucet, a pet or livestock watering system that gets cleaned and changed regularly, a bird bath or fountain that is tended at some interval and not chlorinated etc. Bees can get water from foul, stagnant sources, but it isn't their preference and isn't good for them.

Bees cannot take water from straight sided containers (like a bucket) without risk of drowning. If this is the container you have, you can float thick, wide sticks of wood on the top to give them a landing pad. They prefer a dry edge with shallow approach and prefer rocks or stone as a landing, as the capillary action of water on the rocks, cement or stone means they don't have to actually get too close to the water to take a drink. Whatever source you have, expect to see some occasional drowning. Remember that the important thing is the survival of the hive and not each individual bee. (Very hard for humans to really get) They only live about 6 weeks anyway.

A water source close to their nest (within a few hundred yards, if possible) is ideal and will keep them from bothering neighbors who may have a hot tub or swimming pool. It's far more critical in urban settings for it to be close. If it is too much of a hassle to locate or tend one that is close, and you have a water source that works but is further away, then I would tend that, and not worry about proximity. If they need the water, they will find it.

Bees use the water primarily as a cooling air conditioner. They take up water and bring it back to the hive, where the water, combined with their wing-fanning, helps cool the hive on hot summer days.

Bees are most vulnerable in the Spring (especially cold, wet ones, or ones with a late killing frost that kills blossoms, and most especially following a long, hard, very cold winter) or during hot summer drought conditions when plants can refuse to put out nectar in their blossoms for weeks at a time. Those might be times that feeding could be helpful. I generally counsel against it, as we don't want poodle-bees who are dependent on us, but it can sometimes be the compassionate thing to do, if things are really harsh.

Your land sounds lovely. Glad to count you among the bee guardians of the earth.

Best,

Kelly


On Oct 10, 2010, at 7:14 PM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

On 10/9/2010 8:04 PM, Kelly Simmons wrote:
There is no need to feed bees in the winter. For the most part, they
are in a semi-dormant cluster, are unable to fly anyway, and so would be
unable to partake of your gift. Bees cannot fly in temperatures below 50
degrees fahrenheit. Unless your spring and summer have been unusually
absent of flowering trees and other plants, the bees will have put up
more than enough food for the winter. Wild bees have few needs that
humans can supply! How refreshing!

Bees are opportunists and if a food source is nearby and discovered
before their winter dormancy, then they will definitely take advantage
of the resource - hence the attraction of hundreds of bees to your
compost pile.

If you are wanting to assist them, the best ways to do so are to protect
the tree or cavity that they are nesting in, plant maple, linden and
other flowering trees in their vicinity, locate a water source near
their nest for spring, summer and fall that is set up to prevent them
from drowning, and plant a variety of flowering medicinal plants such as
catnip, mints, thymes and such so that they can self-medicate as they
need to, and most especially lobby your neighbors NOT use pesticides and
herbicides on their properties.

Hello Kelly:

Thanks for this fantastic and complete answer to my question. Shows how little I know about bees. I had several hives years ago but after two years moths infested the hives and the bees swarmed into the nearby forests. This was 5 or 6 years ago. Since then I have improved the soil on most of my 6 acres and let it go fallow allowing wildflowers and wild grasses to become established. These fields are now filled with plants they can forage from, tulip poplar, daisies, goldenrod and many other wildflowers and wild fruits. The daisies are heavy-stemmed perennials with small fragrant blooms. The bees are all over these plants now as they bloom this time of year. Not only bees but over a dozen other pollen-gathering insects, a fascinating sight to watch at mid-day. I expect the bees will gather quite a supply of food for the winter from these daisies, goldenrod and many other plants. In Spring they have tulip poplar, eleagnus, milkweed and much else to forage from. I have plenty of peppermint, spearmint, lemonbalm, blackberries
as well and will see to it that get more herbs planted in areas where it will flourish without supplemental irrigation. I grow vegetables and herbs for market so I was delighted to see so many bees this year. Every year from the time I took my hives down until this Spring I have only seen a few dozen bees during the warm months. So, this is the first time I became aware that there is a significant healthy hive or hives nearby. They are probably in the forests as I know of no beekeepers in the neighborhood. My contribution to the bees, this and every year following will be to preserve and nurture the wildflower populations and trees on my property. I don't know if there is any connection, but last winter I cut down and recycled the wood (branches make great deer fencing) from about 16 large Eastern red cedar trees, several ash and two dying poplars which were shading over an acre of prime garden beds. Now I have much more light and all the annuals and perennials in the fields are thriving like never before, including the daisies, which I will now, wherever they are located, treat as important permanent wildflower gardens. I also have much food for the birds, foxtail millet, amaranth, lambs quarters, crabgrass and Johnson grass.

For watering the bees, what sort of location do they need, pond shallows, shallow wet weather pools, wetlands, containers or just what?

> and plant a variety of flowering medicinal plants such
> as catnip, mints, thymes and such so that they can self-medicate as
> they need to,

I will make plans to get beds of these started.

> and most especially lobby your neighbors NOT use
> pesticides and herbicides on their properties.

_That_ I tirelessly campaign for and have succeeded in convincing
my nextdoor neighbors to avoid using such things in their yards.
I think there is little use of such things in the neighborhood (one square mile at a minimum).

LL
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