Honeybee_BeeTravel_Aurell_Dan_EastTexas_25November2019_Reel4001.mp3

Dan Aurell [00:00:00] But, yeah, just a couple of examples.

Dan Aurell [00:00:04] Like, you might have a North Dakota based operation. The family's from North Dakota, that's where they're, that's where they're really from.

Dan Aurell [00:00:18] But they've been going down to Texas for 15 years for spring build-up, and they've been going to California for five or 10 years for almond pollination.

Dan Aurell [00:00:27] So their current migration route might be something like, you know, on January 1st, their bees are all down in Texas.

Dan Aurell [00:00:35] And then in late January, they send their colonies up to California. They would spend all of February out there.

Dan Aurell [00:00:44] And then sometime in March, most of them would get shipped back to Texas.

Dan Aurell [00:00:49] But maybe, maybe a few loads of bees, maybe they might send them on to do a second pollination event in, to do, like, Washington cherries.

Dan Aurell [00:01:02] Those couple of loads would arrive in Texas a little bit later than the than the main cohort of bees. But then in Texas, in the spring, beekeepers, I would say,migratory beekeepers, use Texas mainly as a state where the colonies have the benefit of early build-up - like warmer weather and early pollen and nectar sources, so that they can split their colonies, divide a colony into two or three or four. You can only only divide it in four if you've got a really strong colony, but ,or even three, you need a strong colony. And then, but then, the colonies will build up on that forage.

Dan Aurell [00:01:48] A lot of beekeepers, at least on the Gulf Plain, make massive honey crops, or big honey crops, from the Chinese tallow tree. So a lot of areas that have a kind of early honey flow, which is when the flora in the area is secreting more nectar than the bees are consuming, so that, so that the bees are gathering nectar, but they're storing more than they're able, or than they need to eat. So that's what the beekeeper calls a honey flow.

Dan Aurell [00:02:22] Yeah - nectar flow is when some nectar is coming in. But when a nectar flow is so strong that there, that the bees are putting away a surplus, and then we call that a honey flow.

Dan Aurell [00:02:34] And yes, so they make honey off of the tallow trees.

Dan Aurell [00:02:37] And then this North Dakota beekeeper, for example, would ship their bees up north to their locations where they're going to make North Dakota honey off of plants like sweet clover, alfalfa or canola in some regions.

Dan Aurell [00:02:56] And then in fall, they are going to send their bees back down to Texas to spend the winter.