Denmark's environment is a desert for pollinators

I was talking to a local conventional beekeeper today and he told me that he is about to start winterizing his hives; feeding with sugar syrup and "locking up" the hives which means leaving only 2 boxes in total and removing the supers.

I told him that this must be too early since it is only end of July but he said plants will not be able to produce much because of the drought and there isn't much forage left in this locality anyway because of all the mono-culture which already bloomed long ago in form of Canola.

Im shocked indeed! So there is no Autumn Honey in my locality!

I was thinking to harvest some honey from my strongest colonies end of July but now I'm worried to do so, unless I decide to feed them with sugar which I really don't want to do. My plan was to let them overwinter on their own honey and only take a few combs for myself from the strong colonies.

What I can do is equalize stores between all colonies and have none for myself. I guess I can go to my local conventional beekeeper and buy some from him ... sad really. His honey is only Canola honey which he could make thanks to swarm control by supering at that time and drone and queen cell culling which I dont do.

He suggested that I start migrating bees to better pastures around this part of Denmark as he is doing. There are those who grow White Clover for example.
I didnt have these issues in Sweden (South of Sweden is the same as Denmark though).
Mono-crop agriculture is the end of us no doubt.

I will need to do my best to create a bee sanctuary on my farm. It is needed indeed! I can see this now. So far my farm looks like on this photo map;

The sheep pasture has been already sown with white clover and grasses and I'm waiting for it to start growing. The kitchen garden area will be organized next year and this autumn and will also be planted with bee friendly flowers (click on photo to enlarge it)

It would be easy for me to just let the bees be (as I already do) if I was a person with a "regular" job and bees are just a hobby. But I'm trying to make a living as a self-sufficient homesteader and some honey would sure help this life style somewhat. I mean I love working with bees and I would love to strike a balance between my household needs and bees needs. I mean I have people asking me to sell some honey to them and I have none! Sad even my wife is asking if we are going to have some honey at least for us this year?

How do I do that in this mono-crop environment and with natural practice?

It's obvious that letting bees have a brood break will resulting less honey but that is one thing I can't take away from them! This means my bees will either swarm or be split in May/Jun when the swarming impulse is strongest.
My bees will always have freedom to build natural comb that's for sure!

This locality is fairly good in Spring and early Summer. Lots of Willow, Maple, Hawthorn, fruit trees, dandelions, thistles, some white clover and of course there is always some Canola around here. But after thistles are done it seems dead.

So it seems that the only way to make some honey is by joining two colonies after the splitting in the same hive but separated by a tight follower board and placing a super on top so they both share it. Queen excluder might be necessary here so queens don't mix.

I could do that in a TBH I suppose or in a long Scandinavian hive. I should also feed new swarms with sugar syrup so they buildup comb faster. I rather feed sugar during comb building season than later.

It's seems I must ponder ...
Here is a video showing our mono-crop environment. Sad really :(

Robbing

Lack of natural nectar sources will very likely trigger robbing. It is not just Honeybees robbing Honeybees but also Wasps and Bumblebees can be seen within the hive trying to rob the stored honey. We are experiencing an extremely dry season for the last few weeks. Without water flowers can't produce nectar. So even if there are flowers around one can't see any bees on them. Bees and Wasps need food to feed their growing population and if there is nothing to be found in the fields they turn to robbing other colonies. Robbing can also be expected in late Autumn when nectar sources become scarce. The only thing a beekeeper can do to minimize robbing is to reduce the entrance size. I have only one 30 mm hole on all my hives which could be sufficient for strong colonies but a bit too big for small colonies. I might start reducing the small colony entrances to just half the hole to reduce robbing. The smaller the entrance the better the bees can guard it. I have not observed full robbing attacks and hope not to see any. 

In this photo one can observe bees trying to evict/kill a Wasp

Here you can can see 3 bees trying to evict/kill a bee which doesn't belong to this hive and
is very likely there to rob some honey. I have observed at least 8 bees being attacked by
 the colony through the observation window

Foraging has turned into scavenging

I can see bee activity slowing down after the Thistles stopped blooming. It seems there is nothing mush left out there in this mono-crop agri-landscape.

Honey bee on Yarrow which is a poor source of nectar and pollen but better this than nothing

Once you see bees working flowers which aren't good sources of nectar and pollen foraging has turned into scavenging. They trying to squeeze all whats left in this locality.

Honey bee working a Tansy flower which is not rich in pollen nor nectar

Drone Wars 2014 have begun

2 days ago I have seen many Drones in front of hive entrances not being allowed to re-enter the hives. This morning I have seen dead drones under the entrances on the ground which is a clear sign that Drones have been evicted in my colonies. Let me notice that this happened before the end of July which is not the case in most conventional hives because they suppress swarming impulse of their colonies and do drone culling and all sorts of manipulations which puts bee biology on hold, hence even drone eviction takes place later in the season. Its a known fact that Varroa prefers to breed within Drone cells. Less drone brood = less Varroa, naturally. So instead culling drone brood at the start of the season when bees need all their drones for mating with virgin queens, I let my bees evict drones after the swarming season is over.

By the way I have noticed a very interesting plant in a near by town which started blooming in late spring and is still blooming now end of July! :) The bees are working it with great enthusiasm :) I must find its ID and get some for our forest garden.

Danish Government is close to slaughtering their wild nature!

I went for a run the other day and decided to run a 6 km round. This is roughly the radius where my bees forage so it was a great opportunity to see what they can harvest in July now. The realization that there is nothing for them to actually forage in the sense of Honey Flow was frightening. Even though it was very hot out side I felt a sudden chill down my spine! "How can bees and other pollinators survive in such a dead environment.?" I asked my self. Pollinators can do nothing else but scavenge everything they can find in this highly agricultural environment. 

On this map you can see our small farm in the middle of the black circle which roughly represents a 2 km radius around my apiary. To the right you can see the near by town of Hårlev which has domestic flowers within households. All the red circles represent forests and fields which are not used for mono-crop agriculture of wheat, oat and canola. Not many grass fields and if there are some most are used for hay for the horses which has none white clover or dandelions. 

The forest parts are beneficial in the spring and start of summer but later nothing much except for honey dew to be found there. The hedgerows are far too poor to offer anything at this time. There are hardly any wild grass fields or  meadows except in our forest garden and in the red circle between our farm and the town to the right. There is one wild field to the left too but that is where another beekeeper keeps up to 12 hives so his bees sure take the most out of it. Apparently beekeepers here have problems with bees from other apiaries robbing their colonies. No wonder they do that since there is nothing much else to do to get ready for the winter. I now see why conventional beeks say "you must feed with sugar syrup for the winter". I also now see why they dislike swarming which leads to brood break at the time of Canola flowering. They don't want their bees to have this because this is the only time they can actually make some honey for them selves it seems. Very sad indeed.

Instead of trying to change the environment towards biodiversity we try to adapt to this mono-crop agriculture by feeding sugars and not letting bees express their own biological needs! 

Im not sure I can keep many colonies in this locality. Its time to seek for an out apiary somewhere where organic white clover grows.

I have read in the newspaper today an interesting article stating that "Danish Government is Slaughtering its Nature". So true once you see the fact with your own eyes. I mean for me it is easy to see how poor this environment looks since I have kept bees in parts of Sweden within a bio-diverse environment. 

From the article; " The wild nature in Denmark has way too little space and is starved by the intense use of pesticides and fertilizers. It is so bad that a large part of wild flowers and butterflies are disappearing. Denmark is in need for wild nature like never before", sais biologist Michael Stoltze.

Our Forest Garden will be called "Bee Sanctuary"

It is absolutely beautiful to see so many different pollinators congregating in our wild forest garden. This place must be an Oasis in this enormous mono-culture human created environment. I think it is time to call it a Bee Sanctuary;

Anthidium florentinum is a gorgeous Mason Bee which I have never seen before

Mason Bee and a Syrphid Fly
Various butterflies can be seen on Thistles

Various Bummblebees

Ebilobium hirsutum Giant Willowherb

Bearding in July

It is mid of July and I see all of my colonies today bearding at the hives entrance. We had a few hot weeks with temperature up to 30'C which is very hot for Scandinavia and the nectar flow was good enough I would say. Since yesterday it is raining heavily. I went to the apiary when the rain stopped for a minute just to find bees on all all hives (except 2) bearding infront of the hive. I can also see ventilator bees at the entrance which is a positive indicator, meaning they are evaporating the nectar.

 Most of the bees hanging outside are with warn wings and with bold black thoraxes which indicates old forager bees. This can mean one thing; young bees can evict older foragers once the main honey flow is over (which can happen in July) and are keeping them outside to make more space for the nectar evaporation inside and to have less mouths to feed. Such old bees will die soon anyway.

 It is not windy so Im sure they are not protecting the entrance for that reason. Im almost certain this must be the eviction of older bees, but with bees one can never know.

Here you can see a slug trying to enter the hive but to no avail