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After losing my hive of honeybees this past winter to some particularly cold weather, I decided to get more bees from a gentleman in Columbus County. I drove over one evening in middle March and loaded the hive of new bees into the back of my truck and very carefully drove back through the Green Swamp to Winter Garden Farm. I installed them pretty much in the same spot as my old bees and I fed them for a couple of weeks in order to help them build up enough strength for this years honey harvest.
So far they seem to have fit right in, I see lots of bees carrying pollen into the hive to feed the new babies, and I also see my bees working the crimson clover in my garden and have seen them working the holly blossoms. Although I havent seen honeybees in the gallberry which is currently in full flower, I know they are because gallberry is everywhere on our farm and it is a favorite bee nectar source and makes wonderful light honey.
Though the honey is a great benefit to having my bees, the largest amount of work they do for the good of the farm is in pollinating our crops such as blueberries, cucumbers, squash, and cantaloupes. Without honeybees, the harvest would have to rely only on natural pollinators, and the harvest would be much less.
Sometime about early to mid July I will open the honey supers ( boxes specifically installed on the main hive box for collecting honey) and see what kind of crop my new bees have made this year.
