Dearth: Signs of Resource Deficiencies

It almost doesn’t make sense. Everything is beautiful and green… ponds are full…how could we be entering DEARTH? It actually happens even with adequate rain. 

What is dearth?

According to the dictionary: A scarcity or lack of something – In a “bees’ life” that means nectar and at times can mean pollen!

When does dearth happen? 

Every area is different. But for most of us it starts mid July and may go as long as early September.  

Roadside flowers have all but died off, most nectar producing plants have dried up and to add insult to injury… at times, pollen can become scarce. 

Knowing your specific area's forage is helpful - What is blooming and when…is it a nectar producer or pollen producer? 

Check out this excellent forage map from NASA.

This map allows you to choose your area and pinpoint what you should be seeing and when. Note the last column labeled SIG – this refers to whether it is a “very important nectar source species”. Get familiar with these plants, what they look like and their cycle for your area. 

Regardless of whether “we” know it's dearth or not…you can be certain your bees DO!

As your experience level and knowledge of forage plants increases, you’ll recognize and learn to spot indicators as well as behavior changes in your bees as nectar sources dry up. Here are a few:

• Hives will sound louder than normal, even when you’ve not disturbed them. 
• Your bees may become more defensive toward you. Not aggressive but more agitated when inspecting. 
• Robbing weaker hives – Unable to defend against a stronger neighboring hive; often weaker hives succumb to robbing within hours. 
• Fighting on the landing, gathering around box seams – all signs a robbing frenzy is occurring. 
• Bees seem to fly in a “desperation” mode instead of with purpose. They act displaced in a way...almost as if they are bored or even lost. 

What can YOU do when you begin to see this pattern?

KNOW WHAT RESOURCES ARE INSIDE YOUR COLONY! I say that in ALL caps because we frequently get calls asking, “Do I need to feed my bees?” Unfortunately, I can’t answer that for you. But I can say – check the stored honey in your hives. If it’s less than 15# for a single deep or 30# for a double deep, FEED.

**Helpful hint: Each deep frame fully capped with honey weighs approximately 10#. 

Regardless of your area, we want to maintain THRIVING colonies. In order to do that we have to consider primarily 2 factors: Varroa management and Nutrition. Supplemental feeding of 1/1 sugar syrup during dearth will enable your bees to continue to feed larvae. 

Providing your bees with nutrients in the syrup can also be beneficial. Adding Complete, Pro Health to your syrup can offer some added benefits. Like Blake says in the summer webinars; We are basically preparing our bees for winter! Hard to fathom, right? But it’s true! What we do now as beekeepers very definitely affect how our bees will overwinter. Keeping populations up is key. We will look forward to a Fall nectar flow to restock honey stores, but in the meantime it’s up to us to keep our bees well fed.

A very important aspect of brood rearing isn’t just nectar…it’s pollen as well. Keeping an eye out on your brood viability is important. Dry brood can indicate pollen shortage. Consider feeding dry pollen at this stage. Not only will the bees thank you, but the viability of the future emerging bees will thank you! It’s important to note: Bees' productivity is directly tied to how well they are fed in larval stage. Nutrition really does matter!

Wet moist brood is found when pollen resources are good. Ensuring you will have well fed, viable brood which leads to healthy bees!

Ultra Bee 1lb canister - Dry Pollen

Photo Credit : Galena Farms Feeding Dry Pollen