The photo above is the view our honey bees see each morning as they start the day foraging among the ranch’s wildflowers. Many people wonder if there’s some secret to where to face beehive entrances. Of course, if you ask 3 beekeepers about it, you might get 5 different answers because there’s no definitive “right”
Beehive Entrance Location Read More »
Like other livestock, honey bees need drinking water resources in order to survive. In the photo above, you’ll see some of our ranch’s bees landing at our pond’s edge in order to get water. When selecting resources for bee food and drink, it’s important to locate them near the hives so that the bees don’t
Drinking Water For Honey Bees Read More »
Although we cull dangerous animals (e.g., venomous snakes) to protect our kids and and visitors, under our ranch wildlife management plan, we protect and nurture many other creatures. For example, we have jackrabbits. The photo above was taken of one of our rabbits we discovered while seeding sunflowers last weekend. Because fur serves as camouflage,
Snow on the Prairie did the heavy lifting for providing our bees with pollen and nectar in August and September. As noted before, it’s a throat irritant so we encourage the bees to stockpile it for winter but don’t harvest the honey for human consumption. Now that the Snow on the Prairie is fading away,
As we head into fall in Texas, there are a few things still blooming that our honey bees like. One of these is Wild Blue Sage. Frankly, it’s a little surprising to see it at our ranch because it isn’t ideally suited to the soil here. However, there are nearby prairie grasslands where it’s likely
What you see in the photo above are bees hanging down from the front of their hive at our ranch. This is called “bearding” because it kind of looks like a beard added to the bottom of the hive’s face. Why do bees do this? There are at least three reasons we know. First, during
