Most people know that honey bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers. But field work for honey bees is much more diverse than that. Field bees suck nectar from the […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
Swarming Is a Sign of Success
When honey bees take to the woods, they’re driven by a collective purpose
A honey bee colony’s plans and those of its beekeeper often diverge, and those disparate intentions of bee and keeper can confuse and confound the objectives of both. At no […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
Apitherapy for Anxiety
Honey bees head out for pollen, offering humans a chance for contemplation
Connecting with nature is one benign, widely practiced, and evidently very effective way of coping with anxiety. In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Ishmael, instead of “stepping into the street, and methodically […]
View from the Hive
Bees in Boxes
Built to make tending and harvesting easy
Probably the most common image that comes to mind when someone mentions honey bees are those tidy (classically white) wooden hive boxes set out in a field, orchard, or country […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
Honey Bees Await the Solstice
Our dark Outer Cape bees winter in frugal clusters
WELLFLEET — On this farm we have Wellfleetian honey bees — although not really; their origins are more likely Ukrainian. Honey bees were never native to North America. With the […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
In Winter, Bees Become a Superorganism
A strategy to conserve energy and food
Hive entrances are eerily vacant and quiet this frigid November morning, but an ear to the boxes reveals lots of life inside. A healthy cluster of wintering honey bees emits […]
view from the hive
The Bees Are Busy Getting Ready for Winter
Fat winter bees will jump-start the colony in spring
Unlike some bipeds I know, honey bees never seem to procrastinate in their preparations for the big chill of an Outer Cape winter. The bees take advantage of every warm […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
In September, Honey Bees Turn Conservative
To survive the cold, colonies produce a crop of “winter bees”
Honey bees, like all social insects, are inherently aware of the late summer’s waning day length, low sun angle, and chilly nighttime temperatures. With the end of the sweet pepperbush […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
Sweet Pepperbush Honey Harvest
The last big nectar flow of the year is happening now
WELLFLEET — In early August, sweet pepperbush, also called summersweet (Clethra alnifolia), comes into bloom where I live, in north Wellfleet. And when it does, the “honey factory” goes into […]
