Are our Texas and Louisiana members ok?

[neillsayers]

Hope you are all high and dry.

[lazy shooter]

Last week my fellow Texans in some of Central and East Texas received 10 to 20 inches of rain.  They suffered some severe flooding problems.  Yesterday the floods were from Austin to San Antonio.  That's a densely populated area and that flood will cause a lot of grief.  The vast majority of us got wonderful and much needed rains.  My ranch received a bit over two inches on both occasions.  That is a wonderful rain for my area, and it will jump start my cover crops.  If I am fortunate enough to catch another rain in about 30 to 40 days, my cattle and wildlife will be "eating high on the hog."  I have oats, turnips, winter peas, hubam clover and rye grass planted.  The oats and turnips have already broken through my tough, cloddy soil.

The peas, turnips, and oats are for the deer, and the clover is for my bees.  The cows eat everything.

We're a big state and most of our rains come from cold fronts and low pressure areas.  When we have state wide rains there is almost always some flooding.  This rain was not an exception, but the news media now targets the weather just the same as school shootings.  It's another SENSATIONAL event.

[brooksbeefarm]

Here in SW, Mo. we had a excess of rain in the Spring and Summer season, but one thing i have learned and won't do is complain about the rain. It can be dangerous, But without water nothing can live. Jack

[Gypsi]

Fine here, needed the rain

[neillsayers]

good to hear gypsi and lazy shooter! I'm in the same boat as you, Jack. We needed this rain. Fall colors were brief this year and the trees just gave up and browned out. My creek has started to flow again.
I saw all those news reports and thought about how devastating that flooding could be to a beekeeper.

[Gypsi]

How is Lburou?  He is the one with riverside hives.

[Ray4852]

I couldn’t deal with 100 degrees temps and 20 inches of rain. Give me my 200 inches of snow every year and my snow blower to blow it away. 

[Lburou]

We are fine here Gypsi.  12 inches of rain this week.  The river rose three or four feet.  Some small erosions, but we are lucky.  We need the rain too.  During the sunny days between these rains, the bees have been very busy, principly on the live oak galls.  :-)

I found THIS article about live oak honeydew and antioxidants this week.  A wasp lays an egg in the plant tissue that produces a gall which secretes a sweet tasting honeydew (not associated with aphids.).  Bees love it!  It's not uncommon for the bees to draw foundation and fill a deep super between 1 Oct and 1 Nov using this and available nectar sources like broom weed here in this part of Texas.

[apisbees]

Lburou Are you seeing any of this Honeydew honey coming into the hive. it is very hard to detect unless you see the bees working a plant for the sticky sap and put 2+2 together.

[lazy shooter]

My back yard is covered with the galls that fall off the oak trees.  Is this honey of good quality?  I know that broom weed honey has a strong and undesirable taste.

[Lburou]

Lburou Are you seeing any of this Honeydew honey coming into the hive. it is very hard to detect unless you see the bees working a plant for the sticky sap and put 2+2 together.

Yes Apis, the live oak trees are abuzz with honeybees.  I've had three calls this month to look for swarms that were bees working these galls. Have seen this other years as well.  I picked a gall and licked the sweet drops of liquid to confirm the attraction to the bees.  Nothing blooming that I see, but there is some pollen coming in (??).  I'll taste the honey and post back to let you know. 

My back yard is covered with the galls that fall off the oak trees.  Is this honey of good quality?  I know that broom weed honey has a strong and undesirable taste.

I think the honey is okay, will taste it some time this week and get back to you. 

The link above about this honey is very interesting.  I recommend reading the abstract.  This honey could be sold as a  specialty honey with high antioxidant content.  :-)

[neillsayers]

Lurou,

glad to hear you and your bees are  okay. I need to check and see if the oak galls here produce honeydew. Probably do (dew).

[Gypsi]

well that explains a thing or 2 about my live oak tree.  Yard isn't full of galls.  Glad you are ok.  Will check my hives next week I hope.

[Lburou]

Apis, I want to follow up on your 2+2 question with more observations.  Bees are not on Live oak galls now, but the Texas sage bloomed last week and the elaeagnus is popping with a massive second bloom this week.  So, this honey will be a mixture of sources.  :-)

The sun is shining again.  :-)

[apisbees]

Thanks for the update. I have a fascination with honey from honey dew. You don't come across it very often and even if you did most people would miss that if is honeydew.

[Les]

It so fascinating to learn what people are planting in different zones. It has given me a new appreciation for what crops are grown in other parts of the USA.   I am chopping up leaves, mulching my veggie beds and get a snipping here and there of parsley, sage and thyme but that's it in the Hudson Valley.  Now if I could just keep whatever it is that is digging up my garlic.  We have a beautiful week forecasted for us.....high temps in the upper 60's and gives me a chance to do some last minute transplants and weeding.  The bees are still bringing in pollen, I wish I knew where they were getting it from.  Maybe there are some asters that haven't gotten hit by the hard frosts.