goldenrod 2021

Along the Atlanta BeltLine, I saw tall upright yellow flowering Goldenrod plants in sunny areas - see photos.

In recent fair weather, honey bees flew vigorously and returned with yellow pollen seen in the photo collage and I noticed a stronger and sour hive odor consistent with Goldenrod forage. 

In late afternoons, I saw a huge number of bees circulating at the sunny hive entrance, busy in orientation flight.  In Atlanta, there are potentially many more weeks of flowering Goldenrod left assuming more fair weather.  This gives me hope that the hive will have lots of bees going into winter.

Will there be a fall honey harvest?  Stay tuned.

autumn blooming chrysanthemum

 

I read Seeley's Following the Wild Bees and became keenly interested in beelining.  I ordered a beelining box from BetterBee and have since sealed the wood with water-based polyurethane. Without success I have been searching for honey bees on wild goldenrod flowers for beelining. Instead I found honey bees on Ryan Gainey Chrysanthemums.   You might say my beelining problem is solved, but I don't want to crush the neighbor's flower heads with the beelining box.  So, I'll wait and wait some more for honey bees to discover wild goldenrod flowers.

2019 - fall hive weight and water balance calculator

• graph 1 - dramatic 2019 fall hive weight gain
• graph 2 - flat to decreasing 2018 fall hive weight
• water balance calculator table - 2019 shows a slightly positive fall water balance compared to past years, while 2018 shows a dramatically wet fall water balance

Many factors contribute to fall hive weight gain, but I speculate that that dry conditions favored optimal goldenrod and aster honey bee forage; sadly these dry conditions stressed shrubs and trees.  Local fall water balance appears to slowly cycle with a period of 3 to 4 years, meaning that fall 2020 might also be dry - stay tuned.

CO2, staple food and goldenrod pollen

A Living on Earth radio article draws a connection between atmospheric carbon and the nutritional value of staple food.  Staple foods grown in elevated concentrations of CO2 result in a decrease of iron, zinc and protein.   These results are reproduced in an experiment where staple foods are grown in a CO2 controlled environment.

This time of year, the hives have a stinky smell.  Imagine the smell of hiking boots or dirty gym socks.  Strong un-sweet notes can be found in pockets around the hives.  I have goldenrod to thank for this smell.  Goldenrod is a vital late summer forage for honey bees.  I was surprised to see that this radio article also speaks to how goldenrod protein decreases as CO2 increases.  Goldenrod pollen samples taken now have 30% less protein than samples from 1850's.  In the same way, these results are reproduced in an experiment where goldenrod is grown in a CO2 controlled environment.

Have a look at the graph showing the CO2 increase since the 1850's.  I expect a further decline of staple foods and goldenrod nutrition in the future.