My Colorado Beekeeping Calendar

A Phenological Calendar for Colorado Beekeepers

By undergoing VIT, I successfully reduced my sensitivity to honeybee venom to safe levels! After taking several years off, my interest in beekeeping has not waned, and I'm anxious to restock our hives. I will definitely let you know when that happens.

Meanwhile, what about you? What are your plans for this season? If you're in the Denver metro, maybe my Colorado bloom calendar will help you think them through. ☝️ Yellow bars = mason bee tasks, blue bars = honeybee tasks. The green bars in the calendar are what's blooming now. Keep in mind that the dates can shift a couple of weeks in either direction depending on weather conditions. For example, the excessively warm 2017/2018 winter had elm trees blooming well before Valentine's Day. The snow storm on President's Day, though, cut short its blooming period. You can click on any of the events for more details and additional reading. I hope you find it useful.

And don't forget, Marty Hardison's booklet, "The Appropriate Beehive" is available at right. If you like The List he wrote for when to do what for one's bees, please consider making a donation. It'll ensure "The Appropriate Beehive" remains available through this website.

 

I've been working with Marty on an update for what seems like forever and hope to post it here soon. Until then, may your hives be humming. — BB & HB

Cherry Cherry Boom Boom – it's the best time to see the National Cherry Blossoms!

Last time I spoke to my sister, she asked if being "homeless" and without belongings made us feel ungrounded. Quite the opposite, I responded, as we feel free to explore and roam at will. Untethered, we can go anywhere we want. I'll say it again; the world is too big to spend all your time in one place. Now may be the last time we're in the DC area, so I was adamant that we witness the famous Cherry Blossoms, pandemic be damned. I'm so glad we did because road and parking lot closures designed to discourage the usual crowds made street parking a breeze!

Eleven varieties of cherry tree surround the Tidal Basin, where the most famous, oldest, and numerous are. Mostly white, they are Yoshino cherry blossoms. The cherry trees in NoVA neighborhoods are popular with all sort of bees, the canopies alive with activity. But the only bee we saw at the Tidal Basin was a lone Eastern Carpenter.

Road and parking lot closures are keeping crowds at bay.

The main cherry blossoms have already peaked, but if you have FOMO you might still be in luck with the Kwanzan cherry blossoms. If you're hoping for pink, the Kwanzans are what you're looking for anyway. Their blossoms are multi-layered like a little rose, which is not great for bees but very pretty if not prettier than the simple Yoshinos in my opinion. They should peak on April 12.

Panoramic experience of the Tidal Basin.

If uncomfortably crowded at the Tidal Basin, you can enjoy cherry trees and other spring bloomers just a few blocks away. 

Grouping of daffodils, candytuft, squill and pansies looking lovely albeit barely established. The catmint behind is waking up nicely, and this garden will surely be abuzz this summer.

The Smithsonian Gardens are open, and with everyone at the Tidal Basin you'll find peaceful space, mostly to yourself. By now, the utterly magnificent saucer magnolias will have yielded the show to Redbuds, a fantastic source of both nectar and pollen for bees.

White camellias and Lilac daphne are peaking while the witchhazel behind is already done blooming.

Art in Bloom at the Enid A Haupt Gardens. The Downing Urn is in the foreground.

Chiyogami Compilation by Peijisan Art

Saucer Magnolia trees are all about the garden.

Daffodils and pansies with unknown yellow flowers in between.

"Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men." ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt, January 24, 1935

Forsythia provides a splash of yellow among the cherry trees.

Regardless of type, the cherry trees are peaking early (perhaps explaining the lack of bees) even in Japan where the gifted trees are from. In fact, peak bloom date for the cherry trees is trending earlier, exacerbating my concerns about climate change. If bees don't adapt to it, we will be in serious trouble. More than we already are. The impact of shifting bloom times on pollination – a different type of silent spring – and food security isn't talked about enough.

What worries you about climate change? More intense heat/cold? Catastrophic weather events? We fled Colorado because of its extreme heat and drought. And wildfires. And snow. But now I'm freaked out about coastal flooding. We're still at my in-laws', looking for a place of our own. I miss having a garden and a place to put our beehives. If you're not affected by climate change tell me! I want to move to where 𝙮𝙤𝙪 live. 💬

Hive Notes for Virginia: the chorus of peepers and wood frogs announce, "It's Spring!"

What's Blooming (in order of appearance) : snowdrops, Maple trees, daffodils, crocus & common violets; boxwoods, Japanese andromeda and yew, hellebore, winter heath, forsythia, hyacinth, Callery pear trees, Cherry trees, Magnolias, eastern redbud, dogwood, azalea, rhododendron, afterwards "it's just green*"

Here's what's blooming in northern Virginia or, as the locals call it, NoVA.

March 11: I quite like how daffodils look interplanted with pachysandra.

March 12: Overhead, maples explode into bloom. A good source of both nectar and pollen, this is the wax flow for strong overwintered colonies.

The solstice is when the queen begins laying again, so I thought I's start planning for the year ahead. I always start my beekeeping calendar with December. 2020 Averages were: 53°F hi / 30°lo; Precip 6.3" (above ave) with 1" being snow. No arctic cold like we had in Colorado 😊 but 2020 was way wetter than normal and it snows here. Winter hardy pansies bloom unfazed but there are no flying days, for sure.

The coldest day of the year occurs in January. 2021 Avg Temperatures 42 hi / 27 lo ; Precip 1.6" (above ave). In Colorado, currently enjoying 2 feet of snow as I write, there'd invariably be a 60° day to sneak a peak and check on food stores. Here the weather isn't schizophrenic; it doesn't snow as much but once it gets cold it just stays cold. (And once it warms up, it just stays warm.) Another thing I've noticed is the wind. In Colorado, we'd have wind events. Big, blow-the-fences-over events every so often. Here, so close to the coast, the winter winds are mostly constant or gusty. Layered with the hum of air traffic from Dulles, I'm not a fan. Bottom line, there's no opening a hive to pop in emergency feed so you better have winterized properly back in the Fall.

February: 2021 Avg Temperatures 48 hi / 27 lo ; Precip 3.7" (above ave) with 1" being snow (booo). I haven't seen a honeybee since November and can't tell if I'm depressed from the lingering gloomy weather or the lingering global pandemic.

March. Quite abruptly, Spring begins to assert itself, announced by the chorus of peepers and wood frogs. The ground must finally be thawed! Flowering bulbs, Japanese andromeda, and maples of all sorts have burst into bloom. Great for the bees but my allergies are out of control! With each Puffs, I'm reminded why we left the east coast in the first place. 🤔 As with CO, I think this is when colonies die from starvation. Growing population and diminishing food stores aside, it's isolation starvation I'd worry about most. Unlike CO, there's no solar gain for the bees to break cluster and move about during cold spells. The stable weather is gray mixed with mostly cloudy, and it's still going below freezing overnight. Flying days do occur, though. There are beehives not far from us, 10 in the bottom photo, and there's definitely some orientation flying.

March 19: Snow crocuses parade across the lawns.

March 20: Anubis among hellebores at Lake Anne.

March 27: Forsythia and Andromeda. Yeah, they bloom together but personally I wouldn't plant them together. Frankly, the landscape design around here leaves much to be desired.

Even the road absolutely lined with Callery Pears can't compete with the showstopping 'Royal Star' magnolia. Its pristine white floppy petals flutter in the slightest breeze to catch and hold your attention.

Projecting Forward (because a large part of a beekeeper's job is anticipating their bees' needs):

April: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 Oh, how I want to hop across the river into DC to see the Cherry blossoms, but the barricades from the capitol insurrection are still up. Based on this article by George Imirie, Retard Swarming By Making A Split, I'm guessing April will be the ideal time to acquire local bees from someone doing a preventive split. It'll have to be a shook swarm unless we can find a local top bar beekeeper. Doesn't matter what part of the country you're in, that's a hurdle. I'll post any VA TBH resource I find for you ASAP.

A full month ahead of Colorado, April into early May is SWARM SEASON, again based on Mr. Imirie's knowledgebase, so it could be a good time to re-stock the hives.

About a mile into the Pipeline Trail there is a house with 10 beehives and another with 7, including 2 nucs. We haven't met their beekeepers yet, but it's only mid-March and it looks like they're doing splits already!

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Additional Resources: https://www.jmu.edu/arboretum/whats-in-bloom/whats-in-bloom.shtml

https://carroll.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/carroll_ext_vt_edu/beekeepers_year_va_apiary.pdf

https://buzzwordhoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Northern-Virginia-Honeybee-Annual-Cycle.pdf

Weather almanacs: www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/va/chantilly/KIAD/date/2020-12

* the Channel 5 weather guy said it, and it makes me sad.

The undeniable SweeTart™ smell of Russian Olive trees perfumes the air of early summer.

It's message? It's time to super! Beekeepers, your job is to help your honeybees take advantage of the nectar flow, or what I like to call the "wax flow." For us top bar beekeepers, that means removing the follower board/false back if you haven't already and inserting bars. Warré beekeepers, whether you super or nadir, do it now so your bees can draw out lots of wax honeycombs. Here comes the honey!

Already forming tiny buds and the tell tale tongue (bract), the Linden trees will take all the moisture we've been getting and develop huge canopies of award-winning honey-producing blossoms, hail notwithstanding. It's been a tough June so far, and we have a long way to go before severe weather season is behind us. But stay positive and get your supers on today!

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A post shared by My brain runs on Bees. (@backyardbee) on Jun 11, 2019 at 10:43am PDT

Tête-à-tête #daffodils, Scilla siberica and Friend 🐝

Spring forage has been late to arrive. Silver Maples, the first real food every year, were a full-month behind schedule. My daffodils and tulips are only just pushing up, no buds in sight yet. This photo is from 2011, when this flower bed was new. In the 8 years since, the Tête-à-tête and Scilla siberica have not colonized as we are warned they will. The Snow-in-Summer is spreading, but slower than molasses. So that's what's blooming in my Colorado garden. What's blooming in yours?

Beekeeping Students: If you see front door activity, there should be pollen involved in some of them. If not…

"Clear blue skies, not too much to ask for. They were here before we came, Will they be here when we're gone?" ~ CSN&Y #vernalequinox #springtimeintherockies

A post shared by My brain runs on Bees. (@backyardbee) on Mar 20, 2017 at 10:08am PDT

The following was posted by Don Studinski, author of Beekeeping Mentor In A Book, in his Yahoo! Group, Beekeeping Students.

I'm seeing white Pear trees bloom all over Fort Collins. I've been seeing forsythias for a few days now. Of course, the elm and maple are almost done now.

Your bees are bringing in pollen and nectar already. They are raising brood! If you see front door activity, there should be pollen involved in some of them. If not, it may be robbers that do not live there. Check your bees. 

I'm out checking today for drone brood in anticipation of swarm prevention.

I heard there were 4 swarms in Denver yesterday!

Unseasonably warm. Consider feeding your bees.

Warmest, driest February for you, too? March is when most colonies starve to death. Now, rather than asking if your bees have enough honey in their hive, ask yourself is it where they need it? There's brood in the hive now, and when the weather turns winter-like again the bees will not risk the brood getting chilled. They will not leave to get food. If they are not in direct contact with food, then isolation starvation can happen in as little as 72 hours. Take advantage of this warm weather to rearrange things in your hive. In other words, move combs of honey from the back of your top bar hive right to the edge of the cluster.

You may also be interested in The List.

Unseasonably warm. Consider feeding your #bees. 🐝 #Honeybees are more active than they should be and little is in bloom. The nectary of #JupitersBeard is too deep for them but some pollen is offered freely.

A photo posted by My brain runs on Bees. And 🍫🍫 (@backyardbee) on Nov 10, 2016 at 10:26am PST

[Originally published on 11/10/16.] Did you leave enough honey in the hive to account for record warmth in October AND November? This week would be good timing to make and insert candy for your bees.

Whoop! Silver Maples Are Blooming

As I often do, I dreamt of bees last night. I dreamt of big, fat white larvae. Drone larvae. I dreamt this because it's official. Silver maples are blooming so the beekeeping year has begun!

#macromonday #ifttt

If you have overwintering colonies, then Presidents' Day weekend is the perfect time to find out what your bees need.

Phenology aside, here's a few "If This Then That" statements that guide me.

EPIC Linden Bloom

Are your supers on? This year's linden bloom is the biggest I've ever seen in the 20 years we've lived in Colorado. The air is so thick with the smell of EASY-OFF® — the hubz says they smell like oven cleaner and for once I'm not arguing  — it's difficult to breath!

Miller moth foraging on #linden tree blossoms, a terrific nectar source for #pollinators. #tilia

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on Jul 13, 2015 at 7:23pm PDT

Are your supers on? The honey… err… WAX flow is on!

May is our rainiest month and this one did not disappoint. Thursday's hail storm took out quite a bit of the Honey Locust bloom, but I can already smell the SweeTarts® aroma of Russian Olives in the air. Your "supers" should be on so that the bees can take advantage of the nectar flow to draw comb. For us top bar beekeepers, now is the time to remove the follower board/false back if you haven't already and insert new bars. Warré beekeepers, whether you super or nadir, do it now. Here comes the honey!

Linden trees are the host plant for eriophyid mites, evidenced by leaf galls (red protrusion at left). 

Already forming tiny buds and the tell tale tongue (bract), the Linden trees will need all of June to develop huge canopies of award-winning honey-producing blossoms. All the while, yellow sweet clover will sweep across undeveloped fields. This is your window of opportunity to get your bees to draw comb. Don't miss out. Get your supers on today!

My Colorado Bloom Calendar

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Your might also be interested in Foraging linden: which parts are edible, and how to use them?

Xeriscape Plant Profile: Lamb's Ears

If your question is, "What bee plant does well in Colorado that I can't kill?" the answer is Lamb's Ears. So prolific it's invasive, but how can one say, "No," to a plant so loved by bees? And not just honeybees but also bumble bees, mason bees, and butterflies as well. Speaking of invasive, the wool carder bee favors this plant for its white hairs, or wool, which it gathers with its mandibles to create chamber partitions in its nest. If you can't see the video below, click on over to my Instagram page and you'll see the bee gathering a big wad of fibers.

#WoolCarder #bee gathering #lambsears wool. #bees #303beekeeper

A video posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jun 28, 2015 at 11:03am PDT

Stachys byzantina is so easy to grow, you don't even really need to "plant" it. Many a patch in my garden started as clumps ruthlessly ripped out and forgotten, left to die but instead rooted. Once established, it needs no supplemental water. It takes mile high sun and heat without wilting, and blooms profusely through the summer with a candy sweet perfume that just beckons pollinators to partake of its sweet nectar.

A photo posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jun 3, 2015 at 12:36pm PDT

Not only does this ground cover spread by stem rooting, it is a ready reseeder. The flower spikes stand 2-3' tall above the furry foliage and when the monsoonal rains come they flop over, I think as a strategy for seed dispersal. As highly visited by bees as the flowers are, seeds are abundant. To help keep this rampant grower in check, deadhead by grabbing the flower stalk down low and yank hard, letting it pull whatever it may with it, usually a decent length of rooted stem.

As a preventive measure, I even remove flower stalks as they develop, as many as I can reach from the front edge of the garden without stepping onto the mulch. This creates a nice low border of just the foliage.

Like a crème brûlée, this pairing is about contrasts and complements: furry, vertical Lamb's Ears and sharp orbs of Star of Persia. Its in-your-face metallic purple is echoed in the magenta pink of the inconspicuous Lamb's Ear blooms, while tiny orbs of green in the ripening onion blossoms complete the final balancing act.  

Early June: Reiter's Thyme (just starting to bloom), Jupiter's Beard, and Mouse Ears Coreopsis flank the Lamb's Ears in this no-water bed.

More Lamb's Ears greets me when I go out the front door. The other plants are sedum (unknown var. by the rock), 'Coronation Gold' yarrow, "Mainacht" salvia, golden privet, more salvia and yarrow. This highly xeric garden is as much about the foliage as it is about the flowers. 

Wish I'd had my #photojojo macro lens on me... this Melissodes bimaculata was "sleeping" on the Lamb's Ear... woulda been an easy capture. Focusing probably would have been easier, too, so I could show you her tail lights. :(

A photo posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jul 23, 2014 at 10:26am PDT

Seedlings are just as furry as the parent plants and once identifiable, transplant easily. Pretty handy if you've got bare patches in your garden where nothing else will grow. Keep in mind, though, that lamb's ears are not evergreen and our harsh winters turn the leaves a drab brittle beige, creating quite a spring cleaning task if you've got huge swaths of the stuff. It rakes up pretty easily and smells sweet like the flowers. Be watchful for ladybugs when throwing the leaves into the trash or compost pile.

A photo posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jun 21, 2014 at 1:07pm PDT

Xeriscape Plant Profile: Rock Soapwort

Mocha the Sacred Birman in the Riparian Garden

These mounds of pink flowers, Saponaria ocymoides, started their life in Colorado as mail order plugs. They survived the shipping undamaged but were so small I seriously doubted their success. It turns out that Rock Soapwort is a vigorous grower, and they established themselves easily on this unwatered hillside. The evergreen groundcover is loved by pollinators, and I end up having to deadhead constantly. It's as easy as grabbing handfuls of seed heads and, with a flick of the wrist, pulling them all off.

The plant's name is derived from the Latin words for "soap" and "sap". I don't like the sticky feeling but execute the deadheading barehanded, because for some reason I can't get the flick right with gardening gloves on. I am ruthless but the tiny black seeds invariably make their way between stone steps or into the gravel mulch, and I discover volunteers here and there every year. In the video below, the rock soapwort is duking it out with another xeric groundcover blooming at this time, Chinese Mountain Stonecrop.

Despite never being irrigated, the Rock Soapwort must produce a lot of nectar, as it draws the attention of hummingbird moths and it's always covered with bees.

Whitelined Sphinx Moth

Xeriscape Plant Profile: Silver-edged Horehound

It's the leaves of this xeric ground cover that people find attractive but it's the inconspicuous white flowers that the bees love, as they do any in the mint family. In the Backyard, Silver-Edged Horehound (Marrubium rotundifolium) is planted next to some Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina) and is almost easy to overlook. Like the Lamb's Ear, the leaves are pale green with white fuzz but while the Lamb's Ear is an aggressive spreader, the horehound maintains it's tidy 2-foot square area in the garden. It is mat-forming, less than a foot high even in flower, so enjoys a front-edge-of-the-garden place where it can be enjoyed. It thrives in the full Colorado sun, heat and dryness, although its position at the edge of the garden means that it occasionally gets supplemental moisture from watering the lawn.

No frame. No filter. Can you guess today's #photojojomacro?

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on May 30, 2014 at 2:17pm PDT

Happily the rabbits are not interested in it and this one is over 15 years old, proving that it is a long-lived perennial. This particular clump has been moved a couple of times, so it's doesn't mind being transplanted. I don't think it's picky about soil either but whenever I dig a new hole, I remove some of the clay (I can't stand our native soil) and I work in some compost and a sprinkling of HydroSource. I firmly believe in these water-absorbing crystals to both absorb inordinate amounts of water when it rains (because if it rains it POURS here) and to release that precious moisture when the heat comes (which it does with equal vengeance). The horehound takes the wild swings completely unfazed.

Other xeric plants that make great pairings with it include deep-green leaved Salvia × sylvestris 'May Night', less intense in presence Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens', and the 2015 Perennial Plant of the Year, Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’. They all bloom later, a good distraction from the need to deadhead the horehound, and the bees love them all.

The light on an unusual overcast day brings out blue tones in the leaves.

If you can't find it at Timberline Gardens or your local nursery, a great mail order source is High Country Gardens.

Out usual full sun brings out a warmer color tone. At Kendrick lake it is paired with a creeping veronica.

VIT Report: 2 Years Post-Anaphylaxis

#InBloom: the Chanticleer Pear produces a watery nectar that isn't attractive to honeybees. You'll see them gathering pollen, though, alongside foraging mason #bees, which are just emerging. Wasps and flies are attracted to the flowers' putrid smell so these trees are simply abuzz in #April if not deblossomed by an ill-timed (SO #CO) snowstorm. #photojojomacro #springtimeintheRockies #nature #303beekeeper

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on Mar 30, 2015 at 8:53pm PDT

Two years ago today I received the life-changing sting that sent me down the path of bee Venom Immunotherapy. So far I've put 540 miles on the car and taken 147 allergy shots, about half the total number of miles & shots I expect it will take to complete the therapy. If I don't have any more adverse reactions to the therapy, I should finish by late-summer 2018. Until then, I have to carry epinephrine autoinjectors on me, the subject of today's post.

VIT Report: Building Up Again

In bloom: Silver Maples are an important source of early #pollen for honey #bees and native pollinators. #Tadaa #photojojomacro

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on Feb 7, 2015 at 2:18pm PST

Finally! After being held at half-maintenance since November of 2013, the allergist has agreed to start building again. They will slowly increase my injections from 0.5 to 1 full cc. I get to pick how fast… how fast do I want to spend $100: twenty bucks twice a week for 2 1/2 weeks, or twenty bucks once a week for 5 weeks? They just re-ordered antigens for me, and that's about $800 out-of-pocket, so I'm inclined to take to the slow route.

I'm also still trying to figure out where the money is going to come from to cover the $385* $430 cost of epinephrine autoinjectors, and that's the generic version. Despite the look I got for carrying around expired Epi-pens, I'm just going to have to keep walking around with expired Epi-pens. Maybe I'll have it figured it out by the time beekeeping season really gets going.

The Beekeeper's Calender: When the Perseids Fly, It's Time to Think about Winter

The Perseid meteors can appear in any part of the sky, but all of their tails will point back to the radiant. Image copyright: Spaceweather.com

What you do in August may very well determine whether your bees survive the Winter or not.

Bees require four things to survive a Winter
A) a good queen
B) a population of healthy young bees
C) adequate food stores (both honey and pollen)
and D) protection from the elements.

Late-Season Management: Combining Two Warré Colonies

First, a quick update on the TBH: after the deadout, it was restocked with a package and a Carniolan queen this Spring. The hive is about 3/4 full, and forage in the Boulder area continues to be "superb." The hive will be moved back, however, closer to home to overwinter. Can't wait to see her again!

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Here's the skinny on the Warré hive. After four swarms, the parent colony (AKA Remainder) dwindled and dwindled until it was apparent that there was a problem. Traffic was decreasing, not increasing, and comb construction in their second box was slow at best. (Gotta love them windows.) We had hoped Remainder's new queen was as well-mated as the one in Swarm #4, but it turns out that she was short-bred and is now a drone layer.

The one good thing to this is that the bees, having little brood to care for, have been able to focus on honey production. While their numbers are not great, they managed to fill several combs with honey. Rather convenient for her daughter hives.

File Photo: Honeybee on marigold taken with a Canon 20D, EF-S 18-55 f3.5-5.6 lens and Cokin 3X filter.

The prime swarm is doing great, due to the fact that it is headed by a queen that is in her second year. She shares genetics with the Ole School Survivor queen that we got from Grampa's Gourmet last year, and she lays honey-producers. It's the 2nd, 3rd and 4th swarms that are in predicaments. This is not unexpected, as an afterswarm typically issues while the daughter queen is still a virgin and it takes a good 2 weeks for her to mature, mate, and really get to laying eggs. And all the while worker bees are dying off.

How much does Venom Immunotherapy cost?

The protocol for Venom Immunotherapy (VIT) is pretty straightforward, yet it's nearly impossible to get a straight answer on how much it costs. Here's what I know.

Foxtail Lilies

Birmans