I’d seen an ad for a meeting about beekeeping in the Homewood Star, a paper and online publication for news and entertainment in Homewood, our little community. The talk would be held at the new Sims Ecoscape site, a plot of land donated to the city of Homewood for ecological efforts by Catherine Sims for the use as a community park and outdoor classroom.
It was a very chilly day, but the sun was shining and the information was interesting enough to almost not notice how cold it was.
George Stegall, owner of Edgewood Honey Bees spoke about the setup of a hive. You’ll start with the wooden hive. These hives can be purchased from Hugh Feagal, a beekeeper in Leeds. You can buy the entire kit for $300, and can expect to invest a couple of hours a month of sweat equity as well. The hive must be taken care of. You must watch for beetles and we were shown methods of luring the invaders to their death with small beetle traps that fit between the racks. You must also extract the honey as it becomes full or the bees may form a swarm and leave.
With this investment, you can hope to harvest 150 lbs of honey per year. But in addition to this healthy sweet goodness, you will also contribute to encouraging a return to ecological balance by housing bees. As the unnatural loss of habitat and pesticides threaten our pollinators it is important for us to make up for this imbalance.
If you are interested in the ecological factor but keeping bees is not for you, you can still contribute by creating a pollinator friendly garden! Landscape designer Arnie Rutkis of the eco-friendly company “Stoneshovel ” next spoke on creating an eco-friendly garden.
Arnie gave us an easy tip on developing a garden attractive to pollinators. Bees like yellow and blue blossoms. Leave those dandelions alone! The bees love them, besides, you can eat them! And our lovely rosemary provides blue blossoms.
The southeastern part of the United States has a very diverse supply of native plants. By planting indigenous flora we supply our most important pollinators the means to support the ecosystem. Not only that, but less money and maintenance is required to keep this style of garden going.
Some of the native plants suggested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services include bee balm, Black-eye Susan, Wild geranium, sunflower and ironweed. Native shrubs include blueberry, carolina rose, oakleaf hydrangea and mountain laurel. The trumpet creeper, carolina jasmine and passionflower are among the native vines recommended for attracting pollinators. Caroline laurel cherry, flowering dogwood and sourwood are good selections for trees, and if it’s grasses you are looking for, choose from big bluestem, little bluestem, purple lovegrass, bottle brush, switchgrass, eastern gamma grass, broomsedge or pink muhlygrass.
Additionally, Arnie showed us small, simple homemade structures that attract mason bees, another great pollinator. The triangular piece of cedar shown here has been drilled with small holes for the mason bees to live in. A bundle of bamboo tied together forms a clever little spot as well. Water near your pollinating garden increases the chances of success. A shallow saucer filled with water and some rocks for a resting place within the saucer is a resource bees will look for.
75% of all flowering plants need pollinators to reproduce. That is big, folks! It’s important in many ways, whether you grow your own or visit the local grocery store. Hummingbirds, bats, bees, beetles and butterflies are all important pollinators.
Oh honey, I can’t live without you! If you feel the same way, plant a pollinator attracting plant or two, build a home for native bees and most importantly, limit or eliminate pesticide use. Let’s live and let live.