{"id":3626,"date":"2026-05-15T18:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=3626"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:00:13","slug":"2026-mid-may-field-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=3626","title":{"rendered":"2026 &#8211; Mid-May Field Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_20260515_121422_sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3628 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_20260515_121422_sm-216x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_20260515_121422_sm-216x300.jpg 216w, https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_20260515_121422_sm-108x150.jpg 108w, https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_20260515_121422_sm-400x555.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_20260515_121422_sm.jpg 666w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/><\/a>Texas weather is finicky.\u00a0 \u00a0 Some years we have a good nectar flow&#8230; and some years &#8211; we don&#8217;t.\u00a0 \u00a0By early-May we have a good idea of how the year is going to look.<\/p>\n<p>Laura and I have noticed MANY locations this year that <strong>the hives are dry as a bone inside<\/strong> &#8211; with absolutely no nectar being stored.\u00a0 \u00a0While you may see flowers in nearby fields &#8211; that does NOT necessarily mean they have a viable food source.\u00a0 \u00a0While all flowers will provide pollen (protein source to feed young larvae) &#8211; not all flowers will have nectar &#8211; which is the bees&#8217; carbohydrate source &#8211; that is used for energy to fly, as well as to create royal jelly to feed to the queen, and to the newly hatched eggs\/larvae. And excess nectar is dehydrated to be\u00a0 honey &#8211; and stored for times when there&#8217;s no natural forage.<\/p>\n<p>What does this mean?\u00a0 \u00a0 It can be the product of several things&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Simply not enough nectar-producing flowers in their forage range<\/li>\n<li>Bad timing for rain (it can take 3-4 days for nectar-producing plants to recover from a rain and thicken up their nectar secretions)<\/li>\n<li>Heat &#8211; once we hit about 95 Deg F (35 C) &#8211; the nectar dries up in the plants<\/li>\n<li>Viable flower fields get mowed too early.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yes &#8211; we have encountered several fields that were BEAUTIFUL &#8211; with bees all over the flowers &#8211; that then get mowed while the good forage-blooms are still active.\u00a0 \u00a0The food for the pollinators just got cut down.\u00a0 \u00a0 In one location &#8211; the field was mowed WHILE we were there working with the bees.\u00a0 \u00a0 It was heartbreaking to see this &#8211; and then having to answer the question later in the year of &#8220;When will we get some honey?&#8221;\u00a0 \u00a0 Well &#8211; in years like this &#8211; we&#8217;re starting to feed the bees syrup to make up for their lack of natural forage.\u00a0 \u00a0When we&#8217;re feeding bees &#8211; there&#8217;s no honey to be taken.<\/p>\n<p>What can you do?\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>Support pollinators by<\/strong> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">planting pollinator-feeding plants<\/span>.\u00a0 \u00a0Trees often will have more nectar produced per tree, than an acre of wildflowers.\u00a0 \u00a0 PLANT TREES &#8211; IN ADDITION TO WILDFLOWER SEEDS!<\/p>\n<p>Some trees that ALL the pollinators love are:\u00a0 Chinese Tallow (this is Texas&#8217; #1 honey-producing plant &#8211; on the Texas coast and in deep East Texas) , Soapberry, Vitex, Mexican Buckeye,\u00a0 Privet, Holly Bushes\/trees, Ligustrum.\u00a0 \u00a0Areas where we ARE seeing nectar stores in the hives &#8211; tend to have bee-balm in bloom nearby (also known as horsemint or Monarda)<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime &#8211; Laura and I are starting to mix a sugar\/water blend to feed the bees, since nature isn&#8217;t providing what we need this spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Texas weather is finicky. Some years we have a good nectar flow&#8230; and some years &#8211; we don&#8217;t. By early-May we have a good idea of how the year is going to look.<\/p>\n<p>Laura and I have noticed MANY locations this year that the hives are dry as a bone inside &#8211; with [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[847,96,98,1039,83,99,15,877],"tags":[1088,1089,942,1087],"class_list":["post-3626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ag-valuation","category-bee-yard","category-beekeeping","category-birds-and-the-bees","category-bohemian-life","category-bohemian-utopia","category-harmony-hollow-apiaries","category-newsletter","tag-1088","tag-may-2026","tag-newsletter","tag-spring-update","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_20260515_121418_sm.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ze45-Wu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3626"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3632,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions\/3632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}