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[PermieGing]

Apparently, honeybees are not native to north america. This means that honeybees brought to america face specific challenges ahead of them like pests, diseases, and climates that they may not have adapted to; meaning honeybees may have trouble becoming naturalized and to thrive independant of human intervention in north america.

So about a year ago, i was inspired by a video of a hive of honeybees taking matters in their own hands (or tarsi, hehe) and defending themselves from a varroa mite infestation, something that honeybees have not yet adapted to. This video really got me thinking, and i realized that with good genetics, lots of time, and minimal human intervention (as in letting natural selection and survival of the fittest take place), it may be possible to help out the honeybees to thrive independantly of humans, in north america.

Every year, honeybee hives split and swarms fly off in search of a new home (unless prevented by greedy humans). This gives me hope that IF one was to successfully naturalize honeybees in north america, the naturalized honeybees could take it from there, and, of course, continue to survive and reproduce out in the wild.

So, last year i started up a top bar hive with some hybrid genetics from my dads hive. The genetics were a russian/ italian hybrid. Unfortunately, the queen died rather quickly, and left no eggs for the other bees to turn into another queen bee. My project was not off to a good start. So, the hive died off at a time to late in the season for starting up another colony in the same hive.

This spring, i will give it another go, and hopefully they will make it through the year. I will leave all the honey, pollen, and propolis for them and i will not be doing any treatments of any kind to them, and i will ESPECIALLY not be feeding them sugar water or high fructose corn syrup. All the while, my dads colonys will be slowly adapting to the climate, so if my colony dies off, which is likely, his will be that much more adapted, and i can start again from the colony of hybrids.

I do not expect this to work with the first few colonies, but with enough patience, i think it will work eventually, resulting in a naturalized honeybee that does not require all the gross treatments and dependancy on humans to live in north america.


Oh yea, feeding sugar water to honeybees is just as gross (or more gross) than the treatments.

I hope this makes sense lol

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[Sunshine]

From what I've heard sugar water isn't bad for them. In fact, I've read that feeding them sugar water made from natural sugar like that evaporated cane sugar and/or molasses is actually very bad for them.

Care to elaborate why you won't be feeding them sugar water? What will you be feeding them?

[PermieGing]

I wont be feeding them.

They will be feeding themselves flower nectar full of enzymes and things other than just pure sugar and honey b healthy (lol)
They will be eating What theyve been eating theoughout there evolution.

There is no way that feeding sugar can be good for any multicellular organism.
It may not have an immediate effect, but i guarantee you there will be many negative effects over time.

Just like with humans, the bad diet karma slowly creeps up, throughout the generations. Just like someone that eats shitty food there whole life may have some negative health effects, the real negative health effects will be 3 or 5 generations of continued shitty diet down the road.

[PermieGing]

Im going to take back the guarantee and just say its very likely; this way i can say its inductive reasoning based on observation

[Sunshine]

It might be worth it to give them some actual honey to snack on from the store.

I like the idea of naturalizing them.

LOL @ the edit. 

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[TBM]

While you're not planning on feeding them any sugar water, will you be sowing any plants with the specific intention of growing them for the bees? Whenever I finally have the time and space to start a hive I want to sow as many different plants around the hive as I can with varying flowering cycles that way I know that they have some food sources right in my garden

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[PermieGing]

Lol yes i was actually about to make a post about that!

I just harvested some goldenrod seed for that purpose! Its a pioneer plant and blooms when nearly nothing else is in bloom!

Also, it blooms at such a unique time, one could actually find goldenrod honey at stores!
I plan on pretty much gorilla gardening as many decent fast growing native nectar producers as possible

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[Sunshine]

Clover is another common flower/plant that they use to feed bees. I think mostly because its hardy and easily available.

You can also collect pollen from certain trees and cattails quite easily during the certain time of the year. You can then press it into blocks and store it in your freezer and use it when you need it. I read that it works great for spring buildup.

From Beesource-

15% pollen mixed into dry commercial pollen sub makes great spring feed for buildup

When I look at your title, "alternatives to feeding sugar?", I think about natural and human-influenced nectar sources. I also think of the alternatives, of course.

One alternative could be a "hands-off" approach, in which case I'm fairly confident that many or all of my hives and nucs would starve out before Spring. However, if the cooling and increased rainfall continues, they will likely need no more sugar from me and instead could produce surplus, instead. Predicting what the weather will bring in the short term is way too unreliable, for comfort.

Another alternative might be to relocate the bees to areas where forage producing crops are being grown in abundance, but the trade-off there is the potential for contact with damaging pesticides.

Or an alternative could be to relocate the bees where there is abundant natural forage - if an area like that is available.

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It sounds like you're considering feeding 2:1 sugar syrup, but are concerned about providing more complete nutrition. In which case, I agree with BEES4U, you should also feed pollen, pollen supplement, or pollen substitute.

I would add pro health to your syrup mix and give them as much pollen patties as they want. Look at www.mannlakeltd.com your bees will be so happy.

[Saros]

We had a pretty rough year with our bees.. Similar to Permie's situation. We lost our queen she left no egg cells behind for the production of a new queen. So right now, our bees are queenless. I doubt they will survive the winter honestly. I will feed them honeywater though. (I have a 5 gal bucket of buckwheat honey for mead-making that I'm not going to use - which btw, I don't recommend. It's a really intense flavour) With any luck I'll be able to re-queen them in the spring. But I'm sort of anticipating having to start a whole new colony.

I think I'd like to add a second hive.. this way I'll have a backup in-case this happens again.

Anyway, I want to plant a bunch of flowers for them next year. We have a few fruit trees that they love, but other than that. there's not a whole lot of wild flowers in the immediate area. I hear they like Monarda Didyma so I'll grow some of that. I also seem to have accumulated a bunch of poppy seeds this year so hey, I'll plant em for the bees:)

I wonder what other plants would be a good source of nectar an pollen for them?

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[Sunshine]

Cattails have a ton of pollen. I read you can harvest it, form it into cakes, and give that to them.

[PermieGing]

Saros, you could look for native plants in your area that are heavy pollen/nectar producers.

Beesource could def help with the information, since what plant is a heavy producer is much more factual based, while much of beesource is opinions.


Me and my dad are going to trap a feral colony that have been in his cinderblock wall for about 7 years without any human assistance. I figure thats a decent place to start with my project

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[PermieGing]

Also, saros and anyone else, my dad and some local beekeepers say that every beekeeper should have at least 2 hives, so you can kinda compare and tell when something is going badly in an individual hive.

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[Sunshine]

Good to know. I planned on having a second hive as back up anyways.

We should totally do bee hive logs. How epic that would be. haha

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[PermieGing]

YES

Awesome idea!!!!!!

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[PermieGing]

So we just put the trap ( a small hive) up a few days ago. We put some empty comb and some comb with honey in it, as well as a qtip dipped in lemongrass essential oil.

Right when i put it on the ground, a bee came and checked it out!!


Ps: i wonder if feeding bees small amounts of water kefir and/or kombucha could be good for them?!?
My dad makes little sugar blocks with sugar and apple cider vinegar, mixes it up, and then he dehydrates it. He puts these blocks in the hives duting the winter. Ive recently talked to him about this, and he is switching to raw apple cider vinegar, full of beneficial microorganisms! But not water kefir or kombucha.... Yet!