Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
This illustrates the parts of a flower, showing an anther dehiscing (shedding) pollen, and
the rest of the floral parts necessary for reproduction.
If you can manage a garden in your backyard, you'll be happy to learn that keeping
bees follows a similar routine. You need a commitment in time, but it's not a crippling
amount of time. It's doing the right thing the right way at the right time that leads to
success. And if you get it mostly right, most of the time, you'll have fun and enjoy the
harvest.
Be aware that much of what you will be doing, you will be doing alone, at least when
it comes to management. Harvesting and bottling and candle- and soap-making often
receive help from interested people in your home, but working bees is probably going
to be your single-handed task.
What's Outside
If you've been gardening for a while, you are aware of how your growing season
progresses. This is a distinct advantage when you start keeping bees because you
are already familiar with the usual benchmarks. Generally speaking, the differences
between seasons depend on how close you are to the equator, no matter which side of
it you live on. The closer you are, the more the seasons blend; the farther away you
are, the more distinct they become. At the equator, the climate is tropical. As you move
farther away it becomes semitropical, then moderate, and finally polar. In the northern
hemisphere, spring begins on about March 21 and summer about June 21. Conversely,
in the southern hemisphere, spring begins on about September 21, and summer starts
about December 21.
Equally important is having a general idea of what the plant world is doing during
each of these seasons. Knowing and managing colony activities in normal, rainy, or dry
seasons, nectar or pollen dearth, and regular seasons, gives you a head start on bee man-
agement. Just as with your garden, you should learn when to plant, when to water, and
when to expect to harvest.
This then is the macro-environment in which you live. But closer to home, where
your bees go, is a microenvironment that's equally important. Specifically, what plants
are growing close enough that your bees can visit them? When do they bloom? The cli-
mate and the weather will affect, to a degree, when those plants bloom—let's say apple
blossoms—by a couple of days, or as much as a week earlier or later in some years.
