These may seem like silly questions to our beekeepers since I know very little about beekeeping or bees. Have read only a little of the history of the craft.
If you put the hives at the edge of a field full of different types of flowers would the bees tend to go more to a single type of flower or pick and chose. They are girls, window shopping wouldn't be surprising to hear. Would they spread beyond the field of easy to reach floral and go to more distant sources? I realise tracking something as small as a bee would be near impossible but..I'm sure someone had it done some where.
I have noticed that most of the sources of honey tend to be ground flowers. The two exceptions I can think of off hand (and I'm sure there are more) are orange blossom and tulip poplar. What about apple, cherry, or other flowering trees?
A lot of the terms I have read in your posts are unfamiliar to myself and I'm sure others. What is a super? A queen excluder? A deep? A shallow? A draw comb?
The old style hives that looked like upside down wicker baskets
those aren't in use in the US, probably for a hundred years or more I'm sure, but was the quality of honey better? Less per hive?
And the question I sure you hear every time you tell someone your a beekeeper. Have you had to deal with the African 'killer' type bees yet? Are they in your area? Is the honey yield greater or less from that type of bee?
Thanks for putting up with a lot of rambling questions,
Tarot.
If you put the hives at the edge of a field full of different types of flowers would the bees tend to go more to a single type of flower or pick and chose. They are girls, window shopping wouldn't be surprising to hear. Would they spread beyond the field of easy to reach floral and go to more distant sources? I realise tracking something as small as a bee would be near impossible but..I'm sure someone had it done some where.
I have noticed that most of the sources of honey tend to be ground flowers. The two exceptions I can think of off hand (and I'm sure there are more) are orange blossom and tulip poplar. What about apple, cherry, or other flowering trees?
A lot of the terms I have read in your posts are unfamiliar to myself and I'm sure others. What is a super? A queen excluder? A deep? A shallow? A draw comb?
The old style hives that looked like upside down wicker baskets
those aren't in use in the US, probably for a hundred years or more I'm sure, but was the quality of honey better? Less per hive?
And the question I sure you hear every time you tell someone your a beekeeper. Have you had to deal with the African 'killer' type bees yet? Are they in your area? Is the honey yield greater or less from that type of bee?
Thanks for putting up with a lot of rambling questions,
Tarot.