If the bees don’t, other things will. It’s too big a pollen and nectar source to waste. The bumblebees are coming outa the flowers now just covered in pollen. BTW, most of my melon vines died this weekend.
Phil- you know you can’t just make those 2 statements and walk away!!!
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what happened to your melon vines this weekend? Cucumber beetles, wilting disease, or what? Mine usually die about now but as I’ve said, everything is late here this year.
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I’m not sure if you are talking about your bumblebees or mine, since I mentioned I am seeing them in my watermelon flowers even though I’m not seeing my honey bees in them. And btw…the bees working my watermelon blums look just like full size bumblebees but are about half the size of what we usually call “bumble bees”. Guess they are just a different variety.
I wonder why- no matter where or what they are working- I don’t see any pollen sacks on my honey bees returning to my hive? They are clearly flying in foom some distance and in large numbers. Earlier this year I did see a lot of bees with those yellow pollen sacks o each leg, but not any more. any idea why?
It wasn’t all the vines, just the Amy melon, sweet and crisp. And the butternut, that’s got me baffled, well not really, it was squash bugs, but they, butternuts, normally aren’t too affected by them.
Bumblebees get smaller in late summer.
Do you know what HB’s are working?
NO!!! That’s why I’m baffled by the fact that they aren’t working my watermelons. There is just nothing else I know of that is blooming around here at all. SInce I’m surrounded by open fields, I can see up to a mile or so around me and there isn’t a bloom anywhere. But I know HBs can go several miles, so they muse have found something. But they don’t have any pollen on their legs when they return, so who knows. Maybe they are eating molasses like Clark’s!!! We have lots of cattle farms around here. 
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I’ve had them gain a big box of honey in a week or less that I know they didn’t come by honestly. They are not above stealing from other hives! The molasses trick was just one of the things they did. A jar of honey smooths over a lot of molasses stealing. I dropped them off a sack of pears the next year.
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Beekeeping is a journey. Every year, you learn more. I will try to post some websites that I found helpful later. Watch for neighbours spraying if you have commercial farms around you. You need to have plants that flower all through your season so they have plenty of nectar. They are fun to watch and the honey is good. I am thinking about adding mason bees too.
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I’m surrounded by soybeans this year but my mowed area is covered with clover. The honey bees are here as soon as dew dries off. So I only mow part of it at a time. The bumblebees are in the garden.
Soybean honey is a nice light amber honey which starts in late July and finishes when the soybeans stop setting pods. Soybean honey is very mild honey and in Ia. we can get upwards to 60# on a good year. The soybean farmer should be thrilled to have your bees in his beans, when I’ve ridden along on the combine, the harvest monitor jumps when the combine runs past the beeyard. Make sure you register with the state, they spray Asana for bean aphids and if the bees are in the beans it will reduce your forager numbers.
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I’m betting your bees are in soybeans.
Thanks, I didn’t know that about soybeans. As far as I know, these are all wild bees.
Once again, very helpful info. And you might be right. Certainly lots of people around here grow soybeans but I thought they were probably done blooming- but I really don’t know. The big field closest to me is filled with Milo right now. I’d never seen it grown before and its the first time this farmer grew it. I have walked over there a couple times to see if there were any bees, but - at least during the times I looked- Milo didn’t really have “blooms”. so I didn’t see any bees.
But I’m still very aggravated about them not working my watermelons. You would think with the hive being 30 feet from a ton of bright yellow blooms that AT LEAST ONE STINKING HONEY BEE WOULD USE THEM!!! But no, not a single one. And if you are wondering, I haven’t sprayed my watermelon plants with ANYTHING at all this whole year, so its not anything I’m spraying. Thank god for bumble bees. They aren’t really thick but if you stand in one spot for a few minutes you will certainly see a few bumble bees working the blooms. And butterflies!
Ok, so the HB’s have a work arrangement with the BB’s. You’re our Cityman, think of it as good labor practice.
Milo’s a grass, bee’s won’t work it much if at all.
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I think I’ve wasted $1000 because I am just about to throw in the towel on bee keeping. I had one hive that was a complete failure, and this other one is an absolute mystery to me and I don’t think I am going to be able to figure it out. I just took a quick peak into it, and even though its almost september, it only has a grand total of about 4 frames of honey- and none of them are even completely covered or full.
What is so frustrating to me about this is that there are absolutely thousands and thousands of bees all through it. They are clearly raising lots of brood in the first two boxes on the bottom, so everything appears to be great except they have not increased the amount of honey in the top box for the last 2 months! There is almost exactly the same number of frames with honey that there has been since July. Bees are crawling all over all 3 boxes, including the honey frames, but not increasing their storage much if any at all.
If anyone (@Chikn or others) has any idea what might be going on, I’d sure appreadite some advice/information. If not, I may know where you can some bee keeping equipment at a good price!!! Maybe its being robbed? I just don’t know, but its very frustrating
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The term honey flow is usually associated to a time period were plenty of plants are producing large quantities of nector. If you have plenty of bees during this time they will rapidly increase the honey inside the hive. In my area there are times when the bees can’t find enough to even balance their needs so they actually used some of what is in the hive, even in the summer. This is a hive started from a nuc so it most likely did not have the huge number of bees during your early honey flows thus the frames were not completely filled. I kept a hive on a set of scales for about two years and checked the hive weight often. This revealed a lot of information about honey storage and honey flows. I wouldn’t be so disappointed honeybee keeping is not simple. Your doing well. I overwintered my bees so this was not a problem as long as adequate honey was left on the hive for winter needs. There are many factors that could be causing this but I think your at a time period when there just isnn’t enough nectar available. This might change soon.
Bees don’t pull comb after July here in Kansas. I imagine it’s that way everywhere. Sounds like everything went pretty good this year overall. Hang in there.
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I can’t tell you guys how much I appreciate the encouragement as well as the information. I was crushed today because it was just the 2ed time I took a close look inside my hive. I was expecting to see a marked increase in honey, and when I didn’t I just hit an all-time low in terms of my disappointment. But mostly that is because I thought something was terribly wrong, so having you guys tell me that it may just be that there isn’t much blooming now makes sense. And Bill is right…I definately have a lot more bees today than I did originally. I thought that should mean I’d have a lot more honey, but the way you explained it, it probably doesn’t mean that.
So, knowing I only have about 4 frames of honey in my whole hive, I wonder if that is even enough to winter my bees? I know phil has suggested I just harvest my honey and buy a new bee package next year. That’s probably what I’ll do- that way I’ll at least get to keep the little bit of honey I have in the hive. THanks for info, folks.
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Kevin, One thing you can do with your bees in coming years is to learn the order of your honey flows. This will help you not to be expecting more than what the bees actually can do. Without an incoming nectar flow, sugar water, or robbing, your bees can’t draw comb or store honey. If they are receiving even a modest flow they will build bees before anything else.
Look for the piece called tricks and tips in the info I sent. There is a trick early in the main honey flow of removing queens from your colonies that will really boast your honey production.
Another reminder, never add another box till the one below has at least 7 frames filled with bees. brood, or honey. The chimney affect really diminishes production too.
First year beekeeping is a very steep learning curve, hang in there, it never will be easy but it will remain interesting.
Thanks phil. Here is an interesting observation that I don’t know what to make of: Now that my watermelons have started to ripen, I cut as many as 3-4 watermelons every day and only take the heart out of them. I leave the rest of the watermelon out by the patch so my chickens can eat them. Well, the last 2 days I’ve noticed they are absolutely covered with honey bees. I mean like 50 bees on each watermelon. Also, I’ve noticed that my fig fruits are also covered with homey bees. I’ve had ripe figs for 2-3 weeks but honey bees just started eating them the last 2-3 days. My question is: Can they use the figs and the watermelon fruit to make honey? Or are they just eating to feed themselves?
The amazing (and very aggravating) thing about this is it suggests to me that maybe the bees don’t have a lot of other blooming things to work. HOWEVER, my watermelon patch is 3/4 an acre and is absolutely full of thousands of bright yellow blooms. THe bumble bees are working them, but not a single honey bee. I’m just lost and confused!
According to one of the beekeeping websites I use, the only thing still blooming in Tennessee is Aster and Goldenrod, for what that’s worth. But I honestly don’t think there is any land within 5 miles of me that doesn’t either have a farm crop or house on it. (fortunately, its mostly farm crops)
They could, I wouldn’t want it. Probably just feeding themselves.
Remember, the bees have to be able to convert what sugar is coming in to a positive energy gain for the colony, if they can’t, they won’t collect or work it.
Goldenrod smells like used sweatsocks when 1st gathered. Aging it a month gets rid of the sweatsock taste and smell. A medium amber, mild flavored honey. Aster smells and tastes bad. A qt. of aster honey in a 55 gal. barrel will ruin the barrel. I always stopped collecting honey just before the asters bloomed
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