A beekeeper’s secret to a bountiful hive: tuning into nature’s seasonal cues. Paying close attention to things like solstice dates, bud bursts and even animal calls can help beekeepers not only produce more honey (yum!) but cultivate abundant bee populations.
West Des Moines beekeeper Julia McGuire is on a mission to better understand phenology, the study of cyclical and seasonal natural phenomena, across Iowa.
“What I’m interested in are the plants and other things in nature that help us be better beekeepers,” McGuire said.
Most crops consumed by humans– from soybeans to strawberries– depend on or benefit from pollination by bees. Better beekeepers manage healthier populations of pollinators.
McGuire has been keeping bees since 2011 and teaches beekeeping through her local school district. Her latest project is developing a planner to guide other Iowa
beekeepers through seasonal events.
She explained that bees instinctively respond to certain phenological cues. Queen bees, for example, begin laying more eggs following the winter solstice, as daylight hours slowly lengthen. When spring starts to awaken, beekeepers can plan around the changing season to maximize egg output.
“We can’t have honey if we can’t have a big population of bees going out to forage,” McGuire said.
One of McGuire’s colleagues starts readying her equipment when she hears a certain frog species call for the first time. McGuire clears space in her hives just as the earliest spring blooms– maples, willows, crocuses– start to emerge. That way, her bees can collect and store fresh pollen for the queen, fuelling her egg-laying with plenty of protein.
As the seasons progress, McGuire changes the configuration of her hives when the first buds start to blossom. Wait too long, and she’s missed half the nectar flow.
“If beekeepers can anticipate bloom times, we can make more honey,” McGuire said.
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Phenology, however, “is extremely sensitive to changes in climate,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As the final frost creeps earlier in the Midwest, warmer spring weather means that, in some cases buds, are bursting sooner than ever before.
Familiarity with the seasonal cycle can help beekeepers keep up, even as the overall timing starts to shift, McGuire said. But she fears that one day, some important species may stop blooming in Iowa altogether. Promoting biodiversity, or the variety of species in an ecosystem, is key to resilience in that case: if one species fails to provide, another can substitute so the nectar flow never stops.
Everyday Iowans can help out at home by planting three species that bloom in spring, three that bloom in summer and three that bloom in fall, McGuire said. While they’re at it, they might consider skipping the pesticides, which can kill bee eggs, delay development and cause honeybee deformities.
Iowans across the state can help McGuire develop her phenological field guide and planner, too, by sending in photos of important bee forage plants and notes about other seasonal cues. Submissions will be compiled into an educational tool for other beekeepers and enthusiasts. Learn more about the project here.