I moved to Albuquerque for the rosemary. Unlike Chicago, here you can grow rosemary outdoors, harvesting its resiny leaves 12 months a year for your polenta and scones and garlicky lamb.
And if Winter was wet enough but not TOO wet, rosemary shrubs in Albuquerque will bloom each Spring like a cloud of violets drawing bees from miles around.
Honeybee and rosemary
Bees need water too, especially here in the desert Southwest.
I keep a bright blue birdbath filled with water and rocks which enable my girls to drink their fill without drowning. It’s only April and already there are 10-20 bees siphoning water at any given time.
Bee drinking from a bird bath
Longtime city beeks tell me that mostly any water source will do, but make sure it’s not treated or otherwise chemically altered. Pools and artificial ponds, for example, are NOT a safe source so unless you have a rustic creek in your backyard, your best bet is to provide a supplemental water source most of the year.
Spring is a fickle vixen in the high desert of Albuquerque. Three weeks ago, the girls were feisty and fixin’ to swarm. Last night, the water in their bird bath was frozen.
Never you mind, though, because the pollen rush continues.
Gathering nectar and pollen from three-leaf sumac
Walking past a nondescript bush this afternoon, I noticed it vibrating with activity like a bowling alley on league night. It’s three-leaf sumac (Rhus trilobata), a desert shrub whose glory days come each fall when the leaves turn bright, bright red.
But my honey bees love it now. As it blooms in early spring from tiny pale catkins, they swarm it like the high school wallflower turned ravishing beauty at their 10 year reunion. Rhus trilobata is in its prime.
In this BBC video, Michelle Obama talks bees with a group of school children helping her dig the new White House garden:
“We’re going to also have a beehive, because one of gardeners here…I’m glad you’re excited because my kids aren’t very excited about the beehive… But we’re gonna try to make our own honey here.”
The announcement of a White House beehive, bliss for beekeepers lobbying to raise the profile of nature’s most effective pollinator, was overlooked by most news outlets in favor of garden-pretty photos and plans for a potager on the White House lawn.
Michelle Obama rakes with the raking action
Otherwise oblivious to my surroundings, keeping bees has forced this big city girl to slow the hell down and smell the pollen.
Hardly a captivating show, gopher spurge is one of the earliest bloomers in Albuquerque but my girls found it immediately. Not only does gopher spurge give up a juicy load of nectar but it produces pollen too, with a coral, almost red color.
Honeybee collecting pollen and nectar from gopher spurge
The last bee bears the coral-red pollen from gopher spurge
It’s a rainy day in Albuquerque so the girls and I are homebound, musing upon less pragmatic concerns such as this. A beautiful artistic collaboration between human and honeybee.
Hive art by Hilary Berseth and his bees
Via the Programmed Hive
Original story and slideshow at NY Magazine
Le bons temps roulant unseasonably early this year and my new girls have issued a license to swarm.
Here’s the scene at the Kerry hive around midday yesterday:
We opened the hive yesterday for the first time since Bill closed ’em up last Fall and removed some honey to curb their enthusiasm for swarming. Perhaps that wee bit o robbing and some rain today will check their wayward inclinations.
Gathering crocus pollen
“The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are of such extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by authentic reports of officers in the public service.”
President James Polk, 1848
And neither would I believe it if I didn’t witness with my very own eyes the overloaded pollen baskets on at least 40% of workers returning to the hive. Elm pollen, crocus pollen, and undoubtedly more which my undiscerning human eyes can’t yet parse.
Welcome to the boom, girls.
Spring feeding
In the high dry desert of Albuquerque, it’s time for spring feeding.
Our days can warm up to 60° but the nights remain precarious, often dropping to 25°. For the girls, it’s a rough time. Little is blooming and they’re close to running out of reserves.
So my bee mentor TJ recommends a bit of extra support in the form of a 1:1 sugar syrup fed until they stop drinking. I’ve added Honey B Healthy to the syrup, thinking that it can’t possibly hurt. The grateful critters are sucking up 16 oz a day.
Photo by Joy Godfrey
mistress beek 
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