One of the favorite winter chores in the horticulture department is taking a morning to conjure up a little treat for our sweet-toothed bee friends.  During the coldest months of the year, our bee hive is trying to keep itself invigorated by feeding on the honey reserves stored up during the growing season.  In order to generate enough heat to survive, the bees huddle together around the queen bee, keeping in constant motion.  There is constant movement between those on the inner, warm part of the huddle, and those who take their turn in the colder outskirts.  The idea of adding a candy board under the lid of the hive is to supplement essential honey reserves and make it easily accessible to reach the sugar source.  The following story (told in pictures) is of the simple process of turning sugar water into bee sweets.

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Filed under: Horticulture, IMA Staff, Musings

Congratulations from the Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog Team to Irvin, who was awarded a Garden Writers Association 2010 Silver Award of Achievement in the Electronic Media category for his informative, hilarious and tawdry writing on this blog. P.S Your photos are pretty good, too.

As I go about the gardens, I see the honey bees still hard at work gathering nectar and pollen from the late summer and fall flowers.

Soon asters will begin blooming and their flowers will work as hundreds of heliports with bees constantly landing, refueling, reloading, and lifting off all day long. The bees’ lives are lives of extreme order and hard work. Especially hard work. They really do work themselves to death. No time for retirement and its activities – meeting friends for coffee, speed walking in the mall, or wondering why the kids don’t come around more often (or being grateful they don’t). It’s just work til your wings fall off. Then you die. Not unlike those of us in public gardening.

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Filed under: Horticulture

You may remember that in my last blog I reported the imminent arrival of our honeybees. They are here – the drones, the workers, and of course, Her Royal Majesty, the Queen. They are quite active already. I can see them flying in and out of the hive from my office window. Chad chose a spot along the old Interurban railroad line that is nice and sunny.

It’s also generally out of view to some degree and less likely to be disturbed by staff and visitors. The bees are not aggressive but if you mess with them they are defenders of their territory. The honey is so sweet but the stinger is so sharp.

Tuesday Chad did the first inspection of the hive. This requires a wee bit of prep. You don’t go in with street clothes, at least not the first time. Here’s Chad all suited up for the inspection. Notice the smoker at his feet. The smoke calms the bees somehow. Maybe that explains why so many humans are addicted to cigarettes.

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Filed under: Horticulture