natural supplemental feeding 

Thanks, Pat. How are your girls doing? Hope they are being busy little bees making honey for you guys.

@@randsbees The girls from all appearances are doing well. I watched several ladies this morning with their pollen baskets ladened full as they buzzed from limb to limb of the American Beauty Berry that is just about to burst into full bloom. They are enjoying the Agastache and Russian Sage as I suspected they would. The problem I am running up against is that housing honey bees is much like eating potato chips! You can’t eat just one. Now I need to figure out where to have more than one hive.

We haven't decided if we're going to leave them up here this winter or take them down to Apex. We think they'll have a better chance of making it through in the milder climate down there.

Thanks so much!

One of the reasons that we like planting buckwheat is because it is a legume and it fixes nitrogen in the soil. We can easily get 2 plantings a year in our area. If you decide to go back later and plant something else in that area, you won't need to buy as much fertilizer. Dr. Leo's website, horiontalhive.com, has a list of pollinator-friendly plants and you can check your local garden supply store for suggestions. Just curious, where are you located?

@@randsbees I am in Central Virginia, Chesterfield county.