Ron talks to the Queen Bee Barb Bloetscher

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good morning everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson. You're in
the garden. If you'd like to join us, we'll love
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(00:26):
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(00:48):
as well, And as I promised, you know, we'd like
to stay up to date with what's going on with
our pollinators out there, and of course very important of course,
our bee's a very important part of the pollinator process
as well. And then of course we go to anytime
we got questions about bees, you know who we go to.
We go to our queen Bee, Barbie b let your
good morning.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Good morning eight.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Is there a silver bullet out there yet for that
for all might?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Oh no, that do what we We are working on it,
but it's it's slow. But there are three new products,
so we have a few more tools in the two box.
But the thing is just like any other past on
any other living thing. We have to learn to use

(01:38):
the right product at the right time and target the mights,
you know, when they are actively damaging or before they
actively damage our bees. We have to target our timing
better and use the right product. So so is a
learning process for us. But there's no magic bullet yet.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
And the reason I ask her if you listen to
us our show on a regular basis, you know, the
number one problem out there with the honeybee has been
these Verroa mites which have caused all kinds of problems.
And of course, Joe Strecker, who's in the captain's chair today,
of course laughing in the background, hoping somewhere along the
conversation you'll bring up bee diarrhea.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yes, no sema. No sema is still still active, not
as active as it was maybe five to eight years ago.
But we do have cases of no sema, especially in
the spring. No Sema serrana was is the more active one.
It may be occurring right now, but we don't have this.

(02:39):
We don't see the symptoms. So if the colonies are
not as then do not have as many bees as
they should acting kind of sluggish. You should sample them
and test them for no sema.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
See Joe just said when you should sample them. When
Joe samples something that means eating or drinking.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
It, well, if he wants to eat them, there a
high source of vitamins nutrients. No, yeah, oh. One of
my early mentors, she would pick the drones right out
of the cells and eat them.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
No, well, you know what, that's what honey? I bet
they taste it. Yeah, you're right, done, tastes like chicken.
They taste like honey. I'll bet that's one thing. Buggy
Joe Boggs will I cannot get him to eat a
bug to save our lives.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, I've eaten all kinds of insects now.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Joe just will not have anything to do with it
for some reason, I'm not sure. Talking with Barbie Butcher,
she has our Queen Bee, uh, getting our update with
with bees and honey bees around the country and how
what's going on. So, you know, between the three stingers
and pictures that I've seen, looks like the honey production
for the summer looked pretty darn good.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Well, it's been surprisingly good with all the rain we've had. No,
it's rain so much. I think we're like some parts
of Ohio are four or five inches above normal, which
is just ridiculous. And I just that's kind of the
seminar where they're saying that we're getting more rain or
water or aer terrainfall is slowly increasing every year. So

(04:17):
it's harder for the bees to get out when it's raining,
and it's hard for the So the bees have to
dry their honey out to you know, eighteen percent moisture
if that's possible, eighteen nineteen percent moisture. How do you
dry out? How do you air condition the hive and
dry out the honey when it's humid and raining all
the time. It's pretty hard to do.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
How do they do that? Yeah? How do they.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Buzz? They buzz their wings they can actually disconnect their
flight muscles, so they they turn on, they basically fan
them with their wings and try to dry them out,
just like you had air conditioned your house.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
How do they know it's eighteen percent?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
They have one very smart bee that walks along and measures.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
It all, one of the one of the male worker bees.
We know, we don't. I don't want to go there,
so anyway. Yeah, so it did seem like and I'm
sure it varied all around the state and by state,
but it seemed like some pretty good honey production going there.
Beekeeper down, you know that's also sharing on our nursery

(05:26):
with his hives, had a real good, good production of
honey as well. So it seems like a few people
that I have talked to around the state have done
fairly well so far.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah. The key is if you take your honey off now,
and most people have taken their honey off. We sometimes
we get greedy and we take too much money, too
much honey off in the fall, and if we don't,
if we have a dry fall and we don't have
good nectar production in the Golden Nods, they won't replace

(06:01):
all the honey that we take off. So we you
know we Ohio, at least central region here, we should,
you know, take our honey off now and then plan
to leave whatever they make now, let them keep it
so just in case.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
So from this point forward, and it's not going to
have with all the beekeepers, but from this point forward,
you would suggest, being the queen bee and the expert
that you are, that for the most part, at this
point forward, we leave what's there for the rest of
the year. No more honey harvesting.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
At least unless you are checking your colonies. And commercial
beekeepers have a whole different world than the sideliners do.
But our colonies should weigh eighty pounds going into the winter.
And so if we have a drought, which we usually
do in August September, they're not going to be bringing
in more nectar. And then they don't have any. And

(06:57):
we see that every year we take the honey off,
they don't replace it because we have a drop. I'm
thinking that the Golden Rocks this ye're going to have
plenty of nectar just because we've had so much rainfall.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, and I remember, and we're going to talk about
this after the break, But I remember last year, uh,
you commenting when Joe and I were talking about the
fact that in the dryer fall, and it was extremely
dry fall all through the state for the most part.
When it's really dry like that, pollen production also goes down.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Same thing with soybeans.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
I read ye interesting talk with Barbie but Butcher. She
is our Queen Bee. By the way, I was reading
something about bees in the in the southeastern part of
the United States. You know, they've started, and I'm sure
you're aware of this. A great Southeastern pollinator census. Yes,
just like the just like the wild backyard bird count.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
I think that that's what way it needs to be done.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
More well, yeah, I guess it's expanding and they're hoping
more states catch you onto this. But it's kind of
the same thing as the backyard wild bird count, is
that you sit down and for a certain amount of
time clock or or document what kind of pollinators show
up on your pollinator plants.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
I thought people have no idea of all the little
solitary bees and flies and everybody else that visits our flowers.
If you just spend an hour, you know, watching the
flowers in your yard, you'll be amazed to see how
many different species visit your.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Flowers and that's when you need that book the bees
in your backyard so you can go and identify all
the ones that are out there. But you know the
Cincinnati Botanical Garden Zoo and again I'm sure you're ware
of this, but they several years ago actually sent a
group of it, like high school interns volunteers with cameras
and they said, every time you stop and you see

(08:59):
things on flower, take pictures of it. And they went
through and they took all of that information back, identified
what they found on those pictures, and they said, anytime
you see it, just stop and click, stop and click,
stop and click. That's part of your job. And that's
how they helped to come up with their best pollinator
plants based on what they saw in the botanical garden

(09:21):
and what was actually visiting the different flowers. I thought
that was outstanding.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
And it's great for students to see that, any age
to see that.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, well, I think this great Southeastern pollinator says it's
I hope this catch is on all the way around
and for anybody listening to us in the Southeast if
you want to learn more about it. Their website is
g s E PC g S E pc dot org
and learn more about it. And I think it's coming
up here very shortly and you can help out do
a census for the pollinators. By the way, are you

(09:54):
going to be in Lansing, Michigan next weekend? It's their Bpalooza.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
I might be up there. Actually, I've been to that.
That's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
I understand. And of course the Michigan State University puts
us on at their horticulture gardens in Lansing, and I've
heard this. It's an all day event. Bring your kids
and bring the family and whatever. But I've heard it's
a pretty cool thing.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Oh and they have expansive gardens, so you have children's gardens,
herb gardens, all kinds of gardens. It's a it's a
beautiful campus. Even though it's in that state up north.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
You know what, Hey, we have we have something in
common with Michigan State. We needed one of us, like
Michigan Michigan. I go Barbie Bletcher, the Queen Bee with
us this morning at a quick break we come back.
We're going to talk about now we're a rounding third,
we're getting into the end of the season. Now, what
do we do to help out these pollinators as we
finish out the year, especially the way the falls have

(10:49):
been the last couple three years. Stand warmer longer into
the season, actually not a good thing for those bees.
And we'll find out why and what you can do
to help after the break Here in the Garden with
Ron Wills help, but.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Do it yourself, Gardener at one eight hundred eight two
three Talk You're in the Garden with Rod Wilson again
Sean Hennity weekdays at three on fifty five KRC and
online at fifty five KRC dot com. Weekends at nine

(11:26):
am on fifty five KRC.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
The talkstation Gormanfarm dot org. That's Gormanfarm dot org. Be
sure and check it out. They do such a great job.
If you've got kids and you want to experience the
working farm, they've got it there on Renting Road and
even Dale. Coming up next on Saturday, August the thirtieth,
they're gonna tag monarch butterflies, which is a lot of fun.
Let us. They have all kinds of other great things.
Check them out. Gormanfarm dot org. That's Gormanfarm dot org.

(11:54):
Welcome back here in the Garden with Ron Wilson, Special
guests this morning. Our Queen Bee, Barbie b Letcher, always
keeping us well updated as far as what's going on
with the bees out there. So Barbie, we're now, believe
it or not, winding down the summer season looking into
the fall, crazy stuff. And you know, you would think,

(12:14):
at least any way I think this your gut feeling
is warm, nice, fall last longer, blah blah blah, good
for the bees, but really not so much, not so.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Much all right now in the Midwest, bees, whether you're
commercial or sideliner, hobby beekeeper, bees are gearing up for
the winter. They are no longer drawing out a lot
of comb. They are concentrating on storing honey for the winter.
They you know, I'm trying to think what I want

(12:50):
to say. They are they storing honey. So one, we
need to make sure that we have healthy bees because
of eggs that the queen is laying this month, those
are going to be the bees that will survive our winter.
So if they're sick, they have mites, they have viruses, whatever,
they're not going to survive the winter. And we have
these beautiful, strong colonies that look like they look strong,

(13:14):
but they're full of nights or full viruses. So about
halfway through the winter, we think our bees are nice
and strong, but the bees are all dying off from
various virus and secondary problems, so that we don't have
enough bees to cover the brood. We don't have enough
bees to be able to find honey in the hive,
and then they die. So this is a really important

(13:37):
month to have healthy bees. So we need to check
for NC, we need to check for no sema, and
we need to make sure that the bees are storing
plenty of honey.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
And pollen for the winter, and Joe checking for no sema.
Remember does this mean sampling, doesn't mean eating one of them?

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, you don't want to eat especially, that's right, not.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
A good thing.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
So when we have these long falls, you know, a
goldln afters about the last plants to bloom. After that,
we don't have any any natural nectar or pollen for
the best to find. So what are they going to do.
They're going to rob from their neighbors. So they steal
honey from other colonies. And it's the strong you know,

(14:25):
the strongest beets survived, so they're stealing honey from each other.
That we've got yellow jackets who are competing as well,
and your colony it seems very strong. It can go
from having you know, eighty pounds of weight down to
nothing within a few weeks, just because the bees are
robbing each other. So when it's warm and you know, October, November,

(14:46):
even December, bees have no food. They're eating what they
have stored, and they can dive before we even go
into the winter. So it's very crucial time to be
checking our colonies.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
That's crazy. And of course I know a lot of
folks are saying, well, can't he feed the bees. Aren't
there commercially made products, those cakes or whatever that you
can feed the bees to the winter. I mean, that
stuff's out there, but it's still not the honey.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
It's not nutritionally complete. And a lot of the pollen
substitutes that we give to bees, they're they're not even digestible.
Bees don't digest soy bean flour. They don't digest. It
goes right through them. So it's we don't have a
good way to feed the bees. I have a beekeeper

(15:32):
friends who actually painted his frames with his own frozen
nectar stuff, and that seems I get helped a little bit.
But we don't have a good way of getting the
food to the bees where they need it, and none
of that stuff is nutritionally complete.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well that's crazy. So so for you know, if you're
a homeowner, you're sitting there thinking what can I do?
Think about the things. The flowers that glass laid into
the season asters and of course those are going to
be available here to garden centers going in the fall season.
Cone flowers continue to go right to the end. Golden rod,
which Barbie mentioned there both and natively you'll see golden

(16:10):
rod everywhere. No, that's not ragweed. It's golden rod. And
there are selections that are available for your landscape as well,
so you can plant those. A lot of the seedums
like autumn joy in that will flower later in the
summer season, great.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Source pollinator, loves seed a great great pollinator. Food.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Sunflowers. There's still a lot of sunflowers that will flower
late into the season. Uh So, look at those zennias
will last until the frost, a good heavy frost finally
takes them out. Black eyed Susans, and we just planted
more of those in our landscape because you know they
last forever. Joe Pye weed ironweed, leatrus agastaki, Russian sage

(16:51):
will hang in there for some time. So keep all
of those in mind, get as many of those planeted
out there as you can to continue on. And you
know the other one that's still I was saying earlier.
If somebody has a garden and they have a you know,
a ten by ten or ten by fifteen area that's
blank right now. You've taken on tomatoes. You can still
plant buckwheat right now.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Oh yeah, it's a good one.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
And have that flowering in about sixty days and that
stuff will flower for a long time.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah. In herbs, you know a lot of the herbs,
oh yeah, and such still last a long time. And
bees like all of those borage.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
The bays will let them go to seed or let
them go to flower and go to seed. Let all
those happen because they really need and water as well.
So it's important from this point out to do everything
we can now to make those flowers and make that
nectar and pollen sources available as long as we can
into the fall season. Barbie Bletcher, always a pleasure, always

(17:46):
great information. And again if folks are up in the Lansing, Michigan, area.
MSU does a great job. It's called the Bee Palooza.
It's on the August twenty fourth, from one until fourth.
You can be sure and check that out as well.
Barbie Blas and for the whole family. There you go.
That's always great information. Really appreciate you spending time with
us this morning.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
Thank you. Ron.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
All right, Barbie Bletcher our Queen Bee. We'll take a
quick break we come back. Somebody ask about hydrians, you know,
do some do? They all help out the pollinators, not
all of them. I'll tell you which ones are best
to plant which She'll give you some late color sometimes
as well. Plus we're taking your calls at eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five Here in the
garden with Ron Wilson.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Good gardening questions. Ron has the answeres AD one eight
hundred eight two three talk. You are in the garden
with Ron Wilson, empowering you are plus forerous future from
the Steve Parents coordinating Financial Planning Studios. This is fifty
five JRC, the Talk Sta Show, an Iborg radio station

(19:00):
for over forty years.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
To morrow