# Texas Drought?



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Hey all you Texans, how is the drought effecting your bees? My buddy techumseh is predicting changes to water use rules and regs.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

Really bad here. If we do not get rain we will get no honey and it will be really bad. 

mike


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## summer1052 (Oct 21, 2007)

Tecumseh is correct. It's bad. I heard the worst in about 45 years. And remember, we are following closely on the heels of the worst drought in Texas' recorded history! 

Wildflowers are up and blooming, but they are small, and early. Trying to go to seed and reproduce while they can!

There is pollen out there, but probably very little nectar.

The cattlemen are worried. We Beeks are worried. 

At church this weekend, Father announced that prayer intentions for April are:
Rain.

Lord, hear our prayer!

Summer


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

It’s dry up here in North Tx, but it’s not that bad yet. It is the driest March on record ever. 1/10 of an inch of rain this month. Most of the lakes are barely low right now but if this La Nina weather pattern holds up it’s going to get bad. 

We had a heavy snow season this winter and the soil moisture seems to be pretty good right now. Wildflowers are coming up good and thick in my area. Looks like it’s going to be a good Bluebonnet bloom this year which is what are city is pretty well known for.


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## Daddy'sBees (Jul 1, 2010)

Ditto the drought here!  I've gotten 2.01 inches this calendar year. January got 1.5 or so of it. Nothing since mid-February!!! Bad conditions for any blooming. Dripping Springs, TX.
:waiting:


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

Want some of our moisture. We got 22 inches of snow in 24 hrs two days ago. If it warms up we will have one heck of a season. Hambone...how many hives do you have? I got a couple of yards I can let you use...we can harvest the honey as we shoot elk off the front deck in the fall.


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## ArkansasBK (Mar 5, 2011)

alpha6 said:


> ...we can harvest the honey as we shoot elk off the front deck in the fall.


Now, that just ain't right!!!


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Is the lack of rain going to effect the tallow flow in your folks area?


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

It is here as well, all of OK is in drought conditions with central OK in extreme drought conditions. We had several days of mist this week bit not enough to get the sidewalk wet. However, the second big dandelion bloom is going strong here, this morning my backyard was alive with bee's working them.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=climate-drought


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/drought_monitor.pdf
Had an older fellow tell us a few days ago that this is the driest he has ever seen this area of northeast Texas, I know it is the driest I have seen it here in the 25 seasons I have kept bees here. The bees have done very well up to this point, even saw a nice little flow today. Certainly though what flows there are will be greatly reduced. I would be surprised if tallow flows arent reduced as well at least I know this to be the case a few years back when it got pretty dry down in the tallow area.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

Better get rain or we are toast....today is even drier than before. Did see some capped honey in a clients hive....plan to start supering next week. 

mike


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

alpha6 said:


> Want some of our moisture. We got 22 inches of snow in 24 hrs two days ago. If it warms up we will have one heck of a season. Hambone...how many hives do you have? I got a couple of yards I can let you use...we can harvest the honey as we shoot elk off the front deck in the fall.


Staying steady at 12. I'm in on harvesting and shooting. We need to team up!


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## mobees (Jul 26, 2004)

I was wondering if anyone has notice an increase in absconding
due to the drought? I had some Russians years ago that seem to
not like extended periods of starvation and took off on me.


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## Shazam (Mar 1, 2010)

Guess this isn't a Bloodhound Gang reference. So you're not doing the kind of things that only Prince would sing about?


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## Ronnie Elliott (Mar 24, 2004)

I have 4-acres of crimson clover planted in my pasture, you can see the green leaves, but not enough moisture for the stalks to rise. Wife told me our local food store has sugar on sale, I better go get some. Slight chance of rain today, and maybe again Monday.


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## Growing Boy (Jan 28, 2009)

Next best chance of rain looks like Monday. Going to have to ask the wife to do the nekkid turtle dance.I have to admit I'm probably doing better than most. Being in the middle of a small town where folks have been planting flowering stuff for 125 years helps. Right now the Photinia is in full bloom and the China berry is just starting. The blackberry bramble is still going. After that comes the privet, sweet olive and Magnolia. One advantage around here of being lazy about mowing is there are a few thousand Star of Bethlehem that are blooming and the girls are working. Wish they liked roses. Got 300 bushes starting to bloom.
Still, I think it might be time to start praying.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

We have tons of crimson clover...do then get anything worth while out of it? 

mike


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## Growing Boy (Jan 28, 2009)

I refer you to this link.http://www.honeybeesuite.com/?p=3162&cpage=1


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Mike, usually not. The flowers are too deep for the bees to reach the nectar.


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## Growing Boy (Jan 28, 2009)

I guess there seems to be some controversy here, (In a Bee forum? Imagine that!)

Girardeau (1958), Lovell (1926), and Pellett (1947*) rated crimson clover high as a honey plant. The quality of honey produced is excellent. Girardeau (1954) stated that when bees forage on crimson clover they do not crowd their broodnest with honey. Girardeau (l 958) observed that bees collected nectar from crimson clover primarily in the mornings and pollen in the afternoons. This is exceptional because most plants that attract bees for pollen do so in the forenoons. The pollen is collected in large amounts and this, also, is unusual for leguminous plants. Girardeau (1958) also noticed that cells filled with crimson clover pollen were scattered throughout the honey storage area instead of being concentrated around the broodnest, and that colonies foraging on this crop swarmed excessively. No reasons were determined for these behaviorial differences.


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## knoxjk (Sep 10, 2010)

Yep dry here too!!!! Should we continue to feed????


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## summer1052 (Oct 21, 2007)

I keep making this point in other posts, so bear with me if you've heard me harp before . . . Someday, enough people will know, and I won't have to mention it.

Just saying "crimson clover" or "White clover" or "__________" is a "good bee plant" is really rather useless.

What VARIETY of red clover? What TYPE of white clover? Huban? White Dutch? 

In the last year, I have had a half dozen ranchers ask about planting Landino for the bees. My standard answer: "Any variety of XXX plant developed by Any State A&M in the last 10 (at least) years is likely to be a waste of money for bee forage. I can almost guarantee it will be self-pollinating, and bred for multiple characteristics that do not include bees, and probably include use around pesticides and herbicides." Like Landino.

If your Daddy or Granddaddy planted a specific variety and you remember lots of bees on it, THAT is the one to go with. If you can find it. But I'm afraid A&M Ag Sciences Dept. does not consider bees when breeding plants. 

We did not get any measurable snow south of I-10 where I am, so it didn't count down here, although it helped Hambone. One inch of snow is generally considered to equal 1/10th of an inch of rain.

Alpha, you can send moisture, but not snow. I personally own the ONLY snowblower here in Lavaca County, and it is holding up my mailbox at the end of the driveway. I brought it with me when I moved from Denver. I don't want to pull it out of retirement! :lpf: 

Pray for rain!
Summer


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

We've gone through a lot of droughts in California. The spring flows can be good, but after that if the bees aren't on irrigated pasture there is going to be a huge sugar bill to pay

Hope it rains on you!!


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## Risky Beesness (Dec 29, 2010)

Central and south Texas have had it the worst over the last 10 years. Drought 2005 and 2006, Flood 2007, drought 2008 and 2009, flood 2010. In 2009, Lake Travis hit it's 2nd lowest level ever and the lowest in the 30 years I have been in Austin. Stopped raining here after TS Hermine in Sept and we have had below average rainfall every month since. I hope this pattern doesn't follow the recent trends.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

Its getting bad here even with the rain....hardly a flow....GRRRR


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## Daddy'sBees (Jul 1, 2010)

Hey. I finally got .1 of an inch the other day. First rain in 6 weeks! Now I have a total rainfall of 2.11 inches for the year.


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## swatkins (Jun 19, 2010)

Just outside of Navasota ... We have had 4.47 in so far with most of that falling in January. Bluebonnets are looking dried out now but there are lots of other flowers blooming. 

The wife has a 40' x 40' garden that is well watered and growing well. The girls are hitting her humming bird feeders hard and working over the flowers.... The hives are about 60 feet from my pond and there are many bird baths scattered about the garden and around the house... 

Even with the abundant water supplies I was considering placing water in entrance feeders to give the girls a close supply of water on these very windy and dry days..


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## avalonweddingsbcs (May 2, 2010)

rain = 0

no rainfall around here in months... last time i remember rain was last spring.

planted 3 acres of clover, nothing came up...

only wildflowers around here are the ones i planted and am watering.


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## mudmallet (Jun 30, 2009)

Man it is bad here in Austin. Everything is brown and hot enough to ignite if you blow on it. We have had 6.61in of rain since Jan 1, 2011. My garden is toast and my well is sputtering. And the southwest U.S. is on fire including parts of TX. I pray for a massive hurricane. For now my bees are subsisting on local landscaping and the dying flowers in my garden. I may start feeding this month if we don't get a thunderstorm to drop a little moisture. Each time it rains just a few drops the Mesquite lets out another round of blooms. If it weren’t for that i'd be feeding now.


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## DRUR (May 24, 2009)

Worst Year for honey I ever remember. Hopefully will be able to pull a few sealed frames from about 7 different colonies, and maybe end up with a total of 2 or 3 mediums to harvest for [personal use], which would be about 80-120 pounds. That would be 11-17# per colony average. We have already had about 5 days 100+ temperatures which is early even for us. Dry, dry, dry. Yesterday baled hay and only received about 60% of the normal crop. That was after we received about 5" of rain 5-6 weeks ago. The heat just sucks the moisture out of the ground. 

I gave up on the honey production when I made nothing off about 60 acres of crimson clover which is normally one of our most dependable crops for surplus honey. Usually good for a 1 to 1 1/2 mediums. However, we had no rain at all during last winter through the middle of April, and this is our wettest time of the year. Bees were working the crimson heavy, just not able to store any surplus. So I have been making splits. Have sold 5 splits and currently have 17 colonies for my self, but 2 are without a queen. One bought queen didn't take and one raised queen didn't make it, so I now have fresh frames with queen cells, but am not to optimistic with this heat.

Made it through the winter with 7 of 8 colonies [treatment free], and hope to go into next winter with 20, so I guess there is no great loss without some gain.

Danny


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## knoxjk (Sep 10, 2010)

Finally 1" rain last night but not enough...started feeding yesterday!!!


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## wilded (Jun 10, 2011)

The stock pond on our family place has never gone dry in my memory and now is just days away from being a memory. Our oats and food plots for the deer did not come up this year and thistles are all that have come up. We are finding dead deer and predators that have died from lack of browse and water. I am new to bee keeping but decided not put buy bees until we get out of this drought or unless I catch a swarm. It does not look good. :v:


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

We finally got some spits today and yesterday...but not much. We did come out right below average on honey...it came from somewhere I do not know what...will just call it honey b/c its the best I can do! It tasted for the most part normal...just tasted a bit off of what i am used to...oh well.
mike


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## beyondthesidewalks (Dec 1, 2007)

We got 5+ inches overnight. The cracks in my black clay soil have swelled shut. There's standing water in my mowed pastures. The fire ant mounds are up to get their nests out of the water. You can almost hear the grass growing. A flow is coming...


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## Growing Boy (Jan 28, 2009)

3.5 inches here, but too late to do a whole lot. Bees just muddling along. Hoping for a fall flow at best.


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## ArkansasBK (Mar 5, 2011)

That rain missed central Ar., but caught the southern part. Getting awful dry here now. But I do have a flow going at the present.


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## Ektor (Jun 18, 2010)

2.20" of rain since Christmas with a little over 1" of that on 21 Jun. 3 packages installed in early Apr, feed but, todate just barely have a single deep forget an additional brood box or super. I have to keep water around or all is lost.


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## swatkins (Jun 19, 2010)

We received 2.70 inches... It really helped put out this fire...

http://www.starnetservices.com/IMG00120-20110619-1555.jpg
This is looking east from the porch of my home on Sunday afternoon.. The fire missed us but destroyed over 30 homes and has burnt 4,800 acres since Sunday... We have had less than 6 inches of rain this year and as you can see in the picture, the grass is all but dead and gone...


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## lazy shooter (Jun 3, 2011)

It rained three inches south of my ranch and two inches north of my ranch, but on my ranch we had no measurable rain. We had thee inches of rain about one month ago. That rain produced the only run-off water since last September. I am feeding each of my three hives a quart of sugar water a day, and I don't see that changing in the near future. We are desperately dry. 

I have cattle, but my ranch is under stocked so I am OK on grass, but the cattle will soon need mineral and vitamin supplements due to lack of green grass. 

Fortunately, my livelihood is rooted in oil and gas consulting. I do the cattle thing to keep my agricultural tax exemtion, and the bees scratch my naturalist itch.

Lazy


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## jim314 (Feb 12, 2011)

Do those of you that have started feeding again feed continuously, or feed every other day or so? My bees have started sucking down the syrup again. I decided to give the swarm hive I caught in May more tonight because I figured they needed it. I was changing the quart jar on the inner cover and got stung twice, the first time that has happened. Does a drought make them more testy also? I didn't change the feeders on the two packaged hives because they are more established and thought I would feed them every other day.
Jim


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

I feed when I feel like it...sometimes I loose a hive...but really feed like once a week...NOW IS THE TIME TO START TAKING YOUR WINTER LOSSES FOLKS! Start getting ready to split up the bad ones and consolidate the small ones...and get the others in shape. I lost absolutely now hives last winter...they were all "lost" in the fall.
MIke


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## Daddy'sBees (Jul 1, 2010)

Kingfisher. is it still dry up there in Upshur county? Man, we could use a flood down here. It is so dry!!! I'm feeding each apiary every other day. I've only gotten 2.52 inches of rain THIS YEAR! It is very hard on the bees and I'm sure many of my hives would not make it without feeding. This is especially true for my "cut-out" bees! Pray for rain.

Later,
Jim Hogg
"The Bee Enchanter"
http://www.daddysbees.com
__________


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## Caver (Jan 16, 2011)

If I had known the drought was coming in November of last year, I would have waited before ordering bees.
In the Lubbock area, we have had 1.13 inches of rain, so far. This is my first hive, and I only have one. I fed after they were installed, and stopped when it seemed they were no longer taking feed. After 2 months, they seemed to have slowed to a crawl in building comb, so I resumed feeding. I will continue to feed until I see nectar coming in, or into winter.
I am just hoping to get them built enough to survive winter.


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

We need a hurricane.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

That is what my dad said!
Mike


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## Daddy'sBees (Jul 1, 2010)

Well thank you for any prayers for rain! I got 0.3 inches of rain yesterday!!! This makes my total for the year at 2.82 inches. I was waiting to see if I got some more today, nada. Oh well. I wish I could push some it up to the pandandle. Maybe we can all get some serious rain all over the state of Tejas tomorrow!

Later,
Jim Hogg
"The Bee Enchanter"
http://www.daddysbees.com
__________


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## Sid from Texas (Jan 24, 2011)

The drought has been severe in south Texas, as stated above. In my area the grass is so dry, there is an absolute burn ban, so I am not using the smoker. I am suiting up fully, which got me feeling very light headed the other day. 

When going through the hives there is very little pollen, and no honey; just stored sugar water.

The bees are managing by staying in the hive in the afternoon heat. I thought the were not flying but I found them on the squash plants early. Not sure how it is cooler in the hive in afternoon heat, but they are flying less than they were in May.


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## lazy shooter (Jun 3, 2011)

Hey Sid:

We have been under a burn ban for months. Brown county is severly dry, and I am sure South Texas is dry. South Texas is dry in a wet year. That being said, I assume you can use your smoker as it does not emit sparks, and it is closely watched by you. I would use the smoker.


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## avalonweddingsbcs (May 2, 2010)

I'm feeding about anywhere from a quart to half gallon per hive per week... We had a lot of pollen stores, but it's gone too..so im doing about half a pollen pattie... put them on last thurs... gonna check tomorrow to see how they did..


wild pigs are starting to invade again looking for forage...


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## lazy shooter (Jun 3, 2011)

Hey Avalon:

"wild pigs are starting to invade again looking for forage..." We are never without wild pigs in Brown County. I have probably shot 50 this year, and I don't hunt them. I just shoot them when I see them.

Do you have problems with fireants in your hives?

Don


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## avalonweddingsbcs (May 2, 2010)

yup.. not tons, but i've seen em...


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## Risky Beesness (Dec 29, 2010)

Lazy Shooter, how are your trees doing in Brownwood? I am pleased to report that most if not all the liveoaks that had shut down and looked dead last year, appear to have survived. They are in their shedding phase now, but have green leaves and pollen showing. We have received more rain in 2-1/2 months than we had through Novemebr last year. Expecting more over the next couple days. Should be lots of wildflowers. Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes are already blooming.


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## lazy shooter (Jun 3, 2011)

Risky Beesness, my trees look better than I expected. I lost some smaller live oak trees that were too close together in mott type environments. For the most part, my larger live oaks and elm trees appear to have made it through the summer. I have been on another drilling job for the past eight days. I am now in my Weatherford home and will travel to the ranch this afternoon. I can't wait to see the bluebonnets. Do your bees forage on bluebonnets? I didn't have any bluebonnets last year, which was my first year with bees.

We are ahead of our annual rainfall and are expecting more rain tonight and tomorrow. My ponds are brimming full. It is shaping up to be a great spring. I have a lot of bee brush on my ranch, and the bees just love it. 

I enlarged a pond last year and it now covers two acres. I bought a lot of fish two weeks ago and stocked it. I can't wait to see the ranch.

Lazy


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