Welcome to October. This is the time of the year
when we start to ramp down bee activities. Yes,
I’m sure some of us will be feeding those light
hives, or making sugar bricks for emergency
feedings. Or maybe you still have a few supers
on with the hope that they will cap the
remaining few frames from the fall nectar flow
like me. But it won’t be long till they are all
bundled away.
With the August and September drought, I
found my last nectar flow to be pretty dismal,
but I know this was not the case for everyone.
While we all live in our small portion of Illinois
called Will County or nearby, and generally
experience the same weather conditions, we do
have environmental uniquenesses that may
include natural water sources such as lakes, or
rivers, or forests vs prairie land, or flat suburban
manicured lawns, versus hilly terrain. I’m sure
all these variables play into the microclimates
that influence what our bees are bringing in.
Speaking of micro climates, I would like to
share 2 quick stories. My wife and I just got
back from a little trip out to the East Coast to
visit my nephew and his family. Has anyone
ever heard the term “leaf peepers”? I heard of
Peeping Toms , but “leaf peepers” is new to me
and I guess … since we had planned the trip
around seeing the fall colors …we fell under
that category.
Here’s the interesting part. We landed in Boston
with most trees pretty much green. As we made
our way up to Lebonon, which is only 2 hours
north, we saw the trees turn into a seasonal
splendor of yellow, orange and red. When we
finally arrived at my nephew’s house… again,
just a few hours away, trees were beyond their
peak with some trees turning barren.
Perhaps the warmth of the ocean breeze
helped to keep Boston trees green, while the
inland locations with no thermal protection
triggered the color changes.
I saw this again when my wife and I made a trip
to Galinia, Ilinois from our first home in Munster
Indiana. At that time, my wife took up the hobby
of making dried floral arrangements. As we
trekked westward during that fall weekend on
the backroad of Illinois, we were awe-struck by
a field of brilliant blooming flowers. These would
be perfect for her hobby once dried. So we
stopped and plucked a few of these exotic
prairie flowers that must be specific to this
region only. One more bunch was added to our
subcompact car, and we were back on the road
with smiles…. which turned to frowns.
As we continued on our way, we started to be
infested with little yellow beetles. Being nobody
really like to have things crawling up their neck
while driving … but not willing to give up our
lucky find … we stopped and moved our
luggage to the back seat, and the flowers to the
truck.
That worked well till my wife’s allergies started
to flair up and the sneezing began. Yet, another
stop to grab her inhaler and allergy meds. We
weren’t about to give up yet… after all, we
thought these flowers only bloomed in the little
micro-climate of Illinois… right?
As the trip continued up and down the rolling
hills of the surrounding Glalinia area, and the
sun warmed the contents of the trunk, my wife
noticed a stinky smell. Could that be the
flowers? … And that … was the final straw, we
pulled over for the third time to toss our lucky
find back into the prairie fields.
So what does this have to do with beekeeping?
This was the rare plant better known as
goldenrod!
And here’s the funny part, as we made our way
home just a few days later, goldenrod
surrounded us everywhere, and was just a few
miles from our home.
So, let me ask you, who saw a good goldenrod
fall nectar flow?