Keeping Bees on the Farm
Modern agricultural paradigms are always in flux, but now more than ever before the assault on pollinators via the agriculture industry cannot be overlooked. Not only is habitat destruction ongoing, but man’s continual push for perceived efficiencies related to monoculture strategies that are biologically weak and reliant on millions of tons of synthetic inputs and genetically modified seed has created an environment that threatens life on earth as we know it. Farmers are still being paid to rip out tree rows to put land back into production and soil erosion is still an issue. Pesticide use is still sufficiently high to knock complex ecosystems into a continual state of imbalance that simply creates the need for more pesticides. Soils have been so depleted that crops of all kinds have become addicted to synthetic fertilizers. Wow, what a bleak time to be a bee, songbird, bat or any other creature that depends upon a diverse, relatively clean (chemically speaking) environment in which to live. What to do? As a farmer, you have a number of options available to attract, protect and promote bees and other pollinators to your farm, all of which rely heavily on increasing diversity.
Preserve and create habitat. When hedgerows and shelterbelts are dozed and burned to make way for more crop acres, it’s tough not to think about the dust bowl, but did you ever wonder how many bee trees and their feral colonies of bees are destroyed by this practice? Why not save hedgerows to preserve a diverse habitat for bees, songbirds and other creatures that will actually make pest management in crop fields easier and can ostensibly increase yields in monoculture grain/seed crops even in species that self-pollinate. To maximize this benefit, leave as much natural area as possible on your farm and add habitat designed to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects around your crop fields. You and the pollinators will revel in the results.
In fields with grassy waterways prescribed, we too often see monoculture grasses planted that might make a good hay crop but will require herbicide treatments to maintain their monoculture status. Waterways planted with a diverse mixture that includes wildflowers and even soil holding legumes that are allowed to flower before haying will reduce the need for pesticides, feed the bees and benefit the livestock that eat the hay.
In pasturelands, a diverse plant matrix is often the most resilient and productive, with the least need for inputs. If nectar bearing flowering plants aren’t currently part of your pasture, consider overseeding or interseeding now and then with plants that can feed both the bees and your sheep or cattle. If you practice management intensive grazing by rotating through many different paddocks, you can readily offer the bees an ongoing nectar flow while putting weight on your flocks and herds. This practice is actually a win-win-win because the animals and bees will benefit, you will build topsoil, and you can reduce or eliminate herbicide and fertilizer use (and bills!) at the same time.
Consider Polyculture Crops. Another idea for benefiting bees on the farm is to grow row and cover crops that intentionally attract and benefit bees. These practices will benefit bees, pollinators and other beneficial insects, which in turn will benefit your crops. One remarkable project carried out by a large-scale regenerative farmer near Windom, Kansas, provides an excellent example of what might be possible. The crop farmer, a strong proponent for intercropping and for using diverse cover crop mixtures planted a mixture after harvesting triticale that included cash crops like oilseed sunflowers and mung beans as well as buckwheat, a small pumpkin, some squashes and a small watermelon. This field also had many colonies of honeybees placed at its edge. And in a very dry year, there was a steady progression of forage material for the bees and the farmer’s sunflower yields were more than competitive in the area. As the cash crops were harvested in late Fall, many of the remaining watermelon fruits were crushed – what a waste. Except it wasn’t a waste. The watermelons that were not picked and distributed turned out to be effective bee food! The bees had an unexpected late season flow of watermelon juice to add to their stored resources.
And, finally - Get Gardening! And, let a significant portion of your garden be devoted to pollinator-friendly flowering plants. This can include letting a portion of your garden crops go to seed as pollinators will happily visit your radish, lettuce, basil (and so many other) plants once they have flowered. Flowers in the garden will feed the bees and attract beneficial insects that will help control pests in your garden while minimizing the need for chemicals. For information on which plants to grow to best benefit the bees and pollinators, see the resource section in Pollinators on the Plains: A Resource for Attracting and Keeping Bees - On Your Farm, In Your Yard and In Your Community - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ff64612c539886ec4f1b21f/t/60ca3f69b00f3f26570f4cdd/1623867352385/RESOURCE_Pollinators+on+the+Plains.pdf.
An additional benefit of attracting pollinators to your garden will be the happy buzz of bees and the bright and beautiful butterflies and moths that visit the flowers in and around your garden. Feeding the bees feeds your soul and reduces the chemical assault on you, your pets, pollinators, songbirds and other wildlife.
Adding Honeybees on the Farm -
If it’s honeybees you’re interested in keeping on your farm, in order to supply honey or other hive products or to help with pollination, all of the strategies outlined above apply and there are a few additional considerations. As pollinator populations have plummeted over the past decades, perhaps none have received as much attention as the European honeybee. Honeybee colonies have died off in droves, leaving beekeepers and others grasping for solutions. Despite efforts to slow or reverse pollinator decline in recent years, pollinator populations continue to decline and honeybee colony loss remains a significant issue for beekeepers. As a result, there has been an explosion in the production of package honeybees for sale to replenish beekeepers’ hives that die out.
One consequence of having to replace significant numbers of lost colonies each year is that beekeepers are forced to become even more efficient in order to maximize their return on investment. Whether turning to cheap manufactured feed sources to supplement food stores during the winter, or utilizing chemical treatments or medications to try to boost bee health, this beekeeping paradigm fits right into the modern agriculture model where farmers, ranchers and now beekeepers are backed into buying all manner of input in order to eke out a bit of profit. But in the case of beekeepers, this paradigm includes restocking the bees themselves. Can you imagine a rancher replacing his cows every year or two due to the collateral damage caused by mainstream agriculture? Certainly not a sustainable model. So, what’s a beekeeper to do?
Turn to Nature – Swarms for Free. Let’s take a closer look at that 5th generation cattle rancher. Her herd is the result of perhaps 150 generations of breeding and selection for animals that suit a market, while also performing maximally and efficiently under her management strategy and environment. This is a strategy that few beekeepers have adopted in their quest for a viable business model, but it is one that can work if you leave some space and resources for your bees and work to promote a healthy, genetically adapted feral bee population in your region. In fact, that feral population likely already exists, and you can take advantage of this wonderful resource to build and bolster your apiary. Setting swarm traps or simply letting people know that you’ll gladly collect swarms they find in their yard can result in a quickly-stocked apiary with no extra cost to the beekeeper. In addition to free bees, you might be getting excellent genetics carried by feral colonies that have adapted to survive.
In turn – Let Them Swarm. After reaping the benefits of stocking your apiary with wild-caught bees, letting your own hives swarm can offer a number of benefits. Healthy colonies naturally grow and increase in number and at some point they will swarm. This is how bees expand their populations and it is how they develop diverse, yet locally adapted, genetics over the generations. While you might get less honey from colonies that swarm that year because the bees need to put resources toward growing new bees, some beekeepers feel that colonies that swarm tend towards better survivability in the long run. Additionally, you can replenish your stocks with swarms that you capture. Sure, try to capture swarms in your apiary and populate your hives with them when you can, but when they don’t choose to get caught or to take up residence in a hive you provide, know that you just seeded the feral bee population in your region and are helping to maintain its resilience through genetic diversity with bees from a healthy hive. Swarming goes both ways, if you are savvy.
Don’t Bee Greedy and Supply Healthy Food for Your Bees. If you keep bees to reap the benefits of the hive, ditch the urge to maximize your volume of saleable or personally usable product. Bees make honey and other healthful things because they need them to survive and indeed to thrive. Healthy colonies are much better able to stay ahead of infestations of all manner of onslaught, except perhaps that of chemical poisons. So, rather than taking all but a few frames of honey and feeding your bees sugar water over the winter, consider leaving enough honey for your bees to survive the entire winter. After all, we would not thrive on a diet of junk food, so why would we expect bees to thrive on a diet of sugar water, processed pollen patties and the like? While it might seem that you are missing out on potential profit at the time, the cost savings in keeping hives alive and healthy through the winter should level out over time. Additionally, you will be contributing to a long-lasting, resilient landrace of localized genes.
Diversity and Integration. We’ve taken a look at a number of strategies for keeping bees on the farm, both native pollinators and managed honeybees. A common theme that runs through the list is adding diversity at every level and “leaving some” for the bees. Leave some habitat and create new. Leave room in your crop, pasture and landscaping plans to feed the bees in novel ways. Add a diverse array of plants everywhere you can, from your garden to your crops to your pastures, and leave them to flower, offering precious resources for bees. Leave some healthful bee-made resources in your beehives to maximize honeybee health. Leave room in your honeybee management plan for a more region-centric swarm management plan. Couple as many of these concepts as you can with a reduction in synthetic pesticide exposure (through spray drift, residue consumption, contaminated pollen consumption, treated-seed dust drift, etc.) and we can rapidly move beyond raising awareness to the pollinator crisis into diminishing the crisis itself. Here’s to bees on the farm!
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Oscar H. Will III (Hank) is a long time farmer, former genetics professor, and retired editor/editorial director of GRIT, Mother Earth News, Cappers Farmer, Farm Collector, and other magazines. He has authored eight books on topics ranging from plowing with pigs to International Harvester machinery. He has rather recently developed his love for bees and beekeeping, and is turning attention to raising more bees on his Osage County farm alongside his wife, KRC staffer and long-time beekeeper, Joanna Will.
This article was made possible with funding from Ceres Trust.