What Is Bee Pollen?

Have you ever heard of Bee Pollen?

At The Honey Cottage we have had an increase in customers coming in and asking questions on bee pollen.  Either they came upon this fascinating product because of friends and family recommending it or they found it by doing research for natural allergy relief.  Whatever the reason you find out about bee pollen, we are happy to show you this exciting beehive product. 

Many people do not realize how much we really need bees to help us eat food everyday.  Bees pollinate the flowers that we use for teas and essential oils. Bees pollinate the flowers that produce the seeds that we use for the next season of crops.  Bees pollinate the fruit and vegetables flowers that turn into food we eat.  Without bees we would not get enough food to feed people.  Bees are able to carry enough pollen, from flower to flower, to visit approximately 5,000 flowers.  Bees are able to pollinate more flowers than humans could in a day.

Bees not only spread flower pollen and collect nectar; they also make bee pollen.  The bees that leave the hive to collect nectar and pollen are called field bees.  When a field bee goes from flower to flower, they do their normal work of collecting the nectar from flowers.  They also take the flower pollen, mix it with the bee spit, make it into a ball, and place it in their pollen baskets on their back legs.  Once their honey stomach is full of nectar, they fly back to the beehive.  Once at the hive, the field bees will transfer the nectar to the worker bees.  A few of the other worker bees will clean the pollen off of the field bees to get them back out faster.  The worker bees then take the bee pollen and put it into the cells.  Some of the pollen is mixed with honey to make bee bread.   

Stay tuned for “How do I take bee pollen?”

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

National Honey Month 2023

Do you know what month it is?

That is right it is National Honey Month!!!  We get so buzzed about talking about bees, honey, beekeeping, flowers, gardening, and all things related.  For us, each year brings about something new to learn or explore.  This year we have been learning A LOT about plants and how they work.  We decided it was time to share more about what the bees eat and why it is important for them to have a sustainable food source.  We are so happy to share some new facts with you and hope you learn something new too!

1- There are some fruits and vegetables that self- sow during the fall.  If the flowers drop their seeds into the soil, they will grow the next spring.  Pumpkins, tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce are just a few that do this.    

2- Honeybees make everything in their hives from propolis to honey their job is constantly going.  One of the best treats that you can get from the beehive is called honeycomb.  It has a chewy texture, is sweet, and is fun to eat!  Some people are not used to the waxy texture.  If that is the case try using it with food; some things we use it for are charcuterie boards, fish, French toast, or pancakes.

3-Bees have pollen baskets on the back of their legs.  Bees will collect pollen, add bee spit, and then place the ball of pollen into their baskets to take back to the beehive.  

4-Many people love using honey in tea and coffee to sweeten their day.  The best way to keep all of the benefits of raw honey is to add it to the tea or coffee when it has cooled down.

5-There are no drone bees allowed in the hive for winter.  Drone bees do not work and they become another mouth to feed in the winter time.  So, the ladies force the drone bees out of the hive and it becomes a girl party until spring!

6-Pesticides are not the only chemical that are killing bees.  Herbicides are just as harmful because they contain glyphosate.  It is harmful for the bee babies, affects the bees ability to stay healthy, and it is actually harmful for humans too.

7- Bee pollen are little pellets of flower pollen, mixed with bee spit, and then taken and used as food in the beehive.  Many people use this amazing gift from the hive for their health.  Some ways that people use it is in smoothies or just swallow with some water.  We recommend all of our customers to start super small to avoid health issues.

8- Some countries will have a frame of honeycomb hanging with their food buffets.  People can cut off small chunks to eat with their meal!  What a buzzing idea!

9- Did you know that bees have little hairs all over their body…including their legs?  This is how honeybees are able to carry so much pollen from one plant to the next!

If you learned something new please share with everyone you know and spread the word about how special bees are!! Help save the bees with us!!

From our hive to yours,

Bee Queen

What are Native Bees?

Have you heard about Native Bees?

With almost 20,000 bee species in the world, it is no surprise that bees do not all look the same.  Many people are quite familiar with the honeybee, which makes enough honey for humans to have a taste too!  However, we get a LOT of customers that were not aware that there are so many other types of bees buzzing about.  All bees do a lot of the pollination to keep flowers, food, and seeds in constant supply.  We are so excited about bees that we thought we should share some of the native bees you might see every day!  Native bees are bees that have naturally lived in their habitat, they were not moved from another location.  We cannot fit all of these amazing bees into just one blog, but we do want to start getting people to bee more aware of the bees that are around them.  We also want to help people understand why we need to plant more flowers.  It is not just honeybees we should be worried about anymore; we need to be fighting for all of the bees that need attention too!  So, without further a due let’s talk bees!

Here is a basic list of everyday Native bees you may see here in North America.  You can find them in mud, in your chimney, in wood, and all over your garden.

Bumblebees                                        Mason bees                                       Wool Carder bees

Carpenter bees                                   Longhorn bees                                   Cuckoo Bumblebees

Green Metallic Sweat bees                 Fairy bees                                           Bellflower Resin Bee

Mining bees                                       Leafcutter bees                                   Polyester bees

Here is a basic list of everyday Native bees you may find in other countries:

Giant bees                                           Russian bees                                       Stingless bees

Cuckoo bees                                        Carniolan bees                                    Teddy Bear bees

Dwarf bees                                          Orchid bees                                         Italian bees

Yellow faced bees                                European Dark bee                             Black bees

We want people to be more aware of native bees because we have more people pushing these native bees out of their habitat and taking their food supply away.  This is a big deal because honeybees do not pollinate some flowers and food that the native bees do.  Also, native bees only make just enough honey for them to survive on.  We rely on native bees for the fruits, vegetables, flowers, and seeds that they pollinate.  We rely on honeybees if we want honey and for the fruits, vegetables, flowers, and seeds that they pollinate.  We rely on all of the bees not just one species.  It is time to fight for all the bees!  Start planning now to take a bee to lunch by planting a huge garden next year.  Plant flowers now if you live in an area where they will thrive!  Most of all keep learning about bees and help by raising awareness!!   

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

Save the Bees with Drought Resistant Plants

Have you ever noticed there is always something more to learn about gardening?

One thing we are confident about with gardening is you will never stop learning because information is always changing.  Just when we think we have a good handle on things something changes and sometimes it is for the better.  That is why we are so excited about drought resistant plants!  In Colorado we normally have lots of sun, but not a lot of rain to go with it.  So, the nice thing about drought resistant plants is they do not require a lot of water.  These plants are perfect for areas where there are drought restrictions and not enough rain.  There are a large variety of flowers so you can definitely have a bee-autiful garden while helping save the bees!

Every time we look things up, we are always learning more about these amazing flowers.  Some of the things that we learned over time is that they can do certain things that help them survive dry weather.  A few of the most unique qualities about drought resistant plants are; they have small leaves, longer roots, and the ability to close the stomata on the leaves.  The small leaves help the plant not loose so much water.  The longer root system, of the plant, helps it get water that is deeper in the soil.  Lastly, the plants are able to adjust the opening of the stomata on their leaves.  Plants will close the stomata during the day when it is too hot and will open them during the night when there are cooler temperatures.  Plants are able to avoid dehydration by closing the stomata during the daytime!

Here are a few varieties of drought resistant plants for the garden;

-Cactus                                              -Daylily                                                  -Yarrow

-Geranium                                         -Chocolate Flower                                 -Poppy

-Aloe Vera                                         -Butterfly Bush                                       -Lantana

-Lavender                                          -Milkweed                                             -Rocky Mountain Penstemon

As we tell customers here at The Honey Cottage any flowers that you can plant are going to help the bees!  We are fighting hard for native bees as well as honey bees.  The plain and simple fact is ALL BEES NEED TO BEE SAVED!  Do what you can by taking a bee to lunch and get those flowers planted in the ground.  A variety is great, but do what you can do. It is everyone working TOGETHER that is going to help the bees!

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

Save the Bees with Perennial Flowers

Spring is officially here! Is your garden ready to go?  

Beekeeping is an amazing way to get back to nature and we get excited about Spring because we get to see our bees buzzing about!  Spring allows us to check up on the bees after a long cold winter to see how they are doing.  We get to watch the flowers bloom and the bees pollinate the flowers.  We love Spring because we can plant flowers, fruits, and vegetables too.  We have learned over the last several years that there are so many types of flowers.  That is why we break down the flowers into different categories with customers when they are planning their garden.  This allows customers to customize their garden with the flowers they will enjoy while helping the bees.

After we talk with customers about annual flowers we then talk about perennial flowers. Perennial flowers will come back the following year; these types of flowers will not need to be replanted each year.  Now depending on the type of flower, they can bloom anywhere from 2- 5 years.  They are a benefit to the garden because they have a better root system and are able to reach lower into the soil for food and water.  Some of the perennial plants will self-sow in the fall which means you spend less money.  Many of the plants offer more flowers.  This gives more nectar for the bees to forage on for example: lavender, Russian sage, catmint, and spirea are loaded with little flowers.

Here are some perennial flowers that will complement any garden:

-Coneflowers                                     -Blackberries                                      -Shasta Daisy

-Russian Sage                                    -Lavender                                           -Peony

-Dutch Clover                                    -Thyme                                              -Raspberries

-Catmint                                             -Spirea                                                -Chrysanthemum

Our first suggestion is to make a plan on how you would like your garden to look and then look around at prices if you can.  Whatever flowers you pick we suggest planting from seed so that you save a little money if you can.  If you don’t have time or are looking to get your garden up faster, we recommend shopping with small local plant nurseries.  Do your best not to use pesticides if planting for the bees!  Mostly, have fun coming up with a garden that you will enjoy looking at and spending time in!  We can all help the bees one flower at a time!

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

Save the Bees with Annual Flowers

Do you like changing your garden yearly? 

At The Honey Cottage we get many questions asking; how can we help the bees?  What flowers should we plant?  Which plants are best for bees?  So, my first set of questions are; do you like changing your garden every year?  How much room do you have for flowers?  Do you like a lot of color?  This helps me narrow down what flowers to suggest and the types that are going to be the best for bees.  It also allows me to make suggestions on flowers that will bring color to the garden.

So, if you enjoy changing up your flower garden every year, we suggest planting annual plants.  Annual plants will bloom for the year and then new flowers will need to be planted for the next spring.  Some annuals will bloom for many weeks in the spring all the way to fall and then will die once the first frost happens.  Annuals are a great way to experiment with how you want your garden to look.  Also, there are many annual flowers that will self- sow! This means that once they go to seed, they drop the seeds in the dirt, and will grow during spring the next year.  Annual flowers come in a wide variety of colors!  Before you start gardening try and plan out how you would like your garden space to look.

Some annual plants that make a great addition to any garden are:

-Wild Cosmos                                    -Marigolds                                         -Petunias

-Sunflowers                                        -Snapdragons                                    -Sweet Alyssums

-Zinnias                                              -Baby eyes                                        -Pansies

-Salvias                                              -Crimson Clovers                              -Nasturtiums

There are a wide variety of annual flowers that can bee planted; make sure to do research, decide whether to buy from a local gardening center or plant from seed, and then enjoy the growing season!  Make sure when you plant the flowers into the ground that the last spring frost has passed.  Annual flowers are sensitive to colder temperatures.  All bees will benefit from the flowers you are growing in your garden.  So, plant as many flowers as you can and ENJOY!

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

Save the Bees with a Garden

How are you helping the bees this year?

For the last 10 years we have watched large farmlands be bought out and houses go up.  We have watched as miles and acres of wildflowers have been bulldozed to build apartments.  We have watched as people have turned their once lush gardens into rock gardens.  We have painfully watched as beautiful flowers that would bloom everywhere in the parks are being drenched with pesticides to keep the grass “looking nice.”  We are seeing people being educated less and less on gardens, flowers, and bees.  We are seeing native bees and even honey bees buzzing about less and less. 

When we first started looking at how to help the bees more we started learning about flowers and how they work in the garden.  We started experimenting to see how the flowers help the bees and other insects.  We started playing in our garden to see how much work they can take and the water they need to thrive.  If we were to bee honest, we were kind of overwhelmed when we started doing the research.  We found that there are so many varieties and types of flowers.  We also learned that there are different times of year to plant them, not to mention zones where some flowers do better then others.  We started to understand why some people may be skittish about having a garden. 

So we are going to start with the basics before spring really starts taking off this year and gets away from us.  We would like to start with explaining a few differences between plants and then really dig in deep as the season takes off.  Some of the questions that we get at The Honey Cottage are; how big of a garden do I do?  What kind of plants should I plant?  Should I start from seed or buy them?  How else can I help the bees?

We have learned that every situation is different and there is no one size fits all with gardening.  Some people have super big yards, some have a few acres that they would like to do something with, and others have just a couple of planters.  We start by letting people know that all kinds of flowers are super helpful for bees.  You don’t need a big garden to help!  

We have learned that there are three different categories of plants.  This has been super helpful for people because it helps them narrow down what types of plants they would like to plant. The three different types are;

Annual flowers- grow for one year

Perennial flowers- are ones that will grow back

Drought friendly plants- are flowers and plants that do not require a lot of watering

Now, if you are going to buy flowers our thoughts are go to the smaller garden shops.  We have learned over the years that many of the flowers we have bought before had growth inhibitors and that can mess with the flowers a lot in our opinion.  We love starting our flowers from seed because then we are able to watch something grow from a seed into a bee-autiful flower.  For us gardening is the thrill of seeing the whole process of growing.  What we have learned is it is all about time; if you have time go for seed, if you don’t have enough time to start from scratch shop with a small nursery that is not spraying the flowers with chemicals.

The final pieces of advice we give people is to stop using pesticides and ask your neighbors to stop using pesticides.  Don’t put out sugar water!!  Put out a small container of water with some rocks daily so the bees can get water instead.  The rocks will give the bees a place to sit and drink the water.  We can help the bees together; we all need to step up and help.  Planting flowers and gardens is the BEST way to help the bees!

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

The Honey Cottage Bee Seeds

What are bee seeds and what do they do?

We have heard many customers over the years say they don’t see bees in their neighborhood anymore. They don’t seem them on the flowers, the trees, or even in their gardens.  Many people are trying to self-pollinate just so their food will grow.  So, at The Honey Cottage we are making a bigger push for gardens this year and we are selling bee seed packs again!  Bee seeds will grow into the flowers that will attract bees to your garden.  It is a wildflower mix that will have different flowers bloom for different parts of the season.  Wildflowers are the perfect flower blend because they all have different vitamins and minerals in the flower nectar and the pollen.  This gives a great variation of food for the bees diet!  The flower seed mix we have has 11 types of annual and 8 types of perennial flower seeds. 

The benefits of planting wildflowers:

-They attract bees to your garden to pollinate the flowers and collect nectar to make honey.

-They attract lady bugs, which help eat other bugs that eat your fruit and vegetable plants.

-They attract butterflies that need flower nectar to survive, and they do minor pollinating of the flowers.

-Wildflower nectar and pollen are also a food source for bats.

-Wildflowers are drought friendly; meaning they do not need a lot of water to grow.

-Perennials will grow back year after year, so no need for replanting!

-Some annual flowers will constantly bloom from Spring to fall.  Plus, once the flower goes to seed you have seeds to plant the following year.

-Flowers produce oxygen that we breath and the carbon we breath out is what flowers survive on.

-You don’t need to plant a huge garden to make a big impact.

-Flowers are bee-autiful to look at!

-The beekeepers who do not use sugar water to feed their bees will thank you for helping keep their bees fed naturally!  You are also helping a beekeeper stop or lessen the amount of sugar water they use to feed their bees by planting flowers!   

-You are helping native bees have a good food source.

At The Honey Cottage we need your help this year to get more food for the bees.  Will you bee apart of the solution this year to help our ecosystem by planting a garden?  Or if you live in a small place can you help get a community garden planted?  We need bees, the bees need proper food, and our ecosystem needs more support from flowers.  We can help the bees, our environment, and each other one flower at a time! 

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

Planning out your garden to help the bees!

Why do I need to plan a garden?

Winter can be very hard to get through; it is cold and does not allow as much time in the sun as the other seasons do. Some parts of winter months are good; you can get rest, drink hot cocoa, plan your garden for spring, and make plans for the summer months.  Plus, it gives the ground and plants time to rest too.  The awesome thing about winter is that it only lasts for about 3 months (unless you live here in Colorado then it tends to be whatever Mother Nature wants to do for the day). Then we get to enjoy warmer weather and get to buzz about with the bees. 

We have learned, over the last several years, that we LOVE gardening!  We get to watch what happens when we put time and work into what is growing in our garden.  We then get to watch the bees collect the nectar from the flowers and pollinate the flowers we have.  Finally, we get to eat the food that was produced, or make herbal teas from the flowers, or we have herbs for flavoring our dinners.  What we have learned from the last two years is that we need to have better plans for when spring comes.  Here are a few tricks that we have learned from our garden:

-Map the plants out on paper

-Plant more drought friendly plants

-Have a plan to protect the plants from freezes

-Have markers to say what is planted

-Pluck the weeds better

-Don’t plant too many plants in one spot

-Have a better water schedule and have it in one spot

-Make sure to have more room for the plants that like to vine

For many of you this plan is totally obvious, but we have met some people who did not know some of these tricks.  So, that is the first step to saving the bees for us at The Honey Cottage.  We want to help those that are struggling with the idea of gardening and the time it takes to garden and care for the plants. 

One last tip is to start a small garden.  This is another way to help the bees, but not invest tons of time.  We always like this tip the best because it allows you to figure out what you have time for! Starting small also allows you to grow bigger for the next year. We hope you are buzzed about your garden and helping the bees this year!

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen

Happy New Year; welcome 2023!

Have you started, finished, or set your resolutions for the year?

Over time I have seen a lot of people get excited over New Year’s Resolutions.  The New Year allows a fresh start of what people want to accomplish for themselves.  I have seen many that once a mistake happens they stop the resolution.  I have also seen where people make a huge list of things they want to change and by item two they shut down because it is taking too much time.  I decided a while ago it is time to stop that habit because, let’s face it, I have done this too.  So I decided finally to call them New Year’s goals instead.

Last year was a great start to this new mindset.  If I made a mistake I was able to still keep going toward the goal.  I decided to set time limits on when I wanted goals to be accomplished.  I was careful with my time limits as well; if I thought something would take a month to finish I set it for two months.  It takes time to make changes and in our, fast paced, society we have to stop having expectations to complete it all at once.  It gave me the added benefit of time because things pop up in life.  I noticed with the extra time limit that; if I focused on it I was getting it done fast and it felt like I was getting it done early.  That alone helped boost my confidence that I was getting things done in a timely manner. 

The other reason I started using New Year’s goals was because I had noticed I constantly set the bar too high.  I would set a resolution and instead of seeing progress I saw failure.  For me; setting goals showed the steps I needed to complete to get to the end.  By seeing and doing one step at a time I was able to see victory and keep going.  If I did not complete the one step the day I was hoping to, I gave myself grace and got it done the next day I could.  Growing up I learned the only way to complete a goal or to get what I wanted in life was to work at it.  However, I did not learn if you don’t get it done that minute it is okay to have grace for yourself and just get it done another day.

This year we have decided to fight harder for people to plant gardens.  This has been a big goal for the past several years and has been a difficult fight to fight.  Our first big step has been to get people to buy bee friendly flower seeds.  We are no longer just fighting for honey bees!  We have noticed a huge decline in native bees that live around us.  There are many native bees that are becoming endangered; bumblebees are the most notable ones.  It is hard to tell how many other native bees are coming close to being on the endangered list or are gone already.  The biggest factor to the decline in bees is; not enough flowers are being planted.  Bees need the sweet nectar of flowers to correctly survive.  Humans cannot survive on candy bars and bees cannot be sustained on sugar water.  Let’s work together this year to plant more gardens and flowers!  Help Save the Native bees!!!

From Our Hive to Yours,

Bee Queen