Tag Archives: conservation

Creating a Large Scale Pollinator Habitat and Conservation Area

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Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.  Doug and I have a huge project starting in 2020 that we are happy to share with you.  We are creating a 26 acre conservation area and pollinator habitat.  This is unlike anything we have ever done before, but if Morgan Freeman, can do it so can we.  (In case you didn’t know, Morgan Freeman recently converted his 124 acre ranch in Mississippi to a bee sanctuary.  I am a huge Morgan Freeman fan.  He actually helped me learn to read thanks to his work on the Electric Company.)

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Creating a Monarch Waystation

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Snow is covering the ground here, and the bees are all clustered around their respective queens keeping them warm for the winter. Just before the really cold weather hit, Doug installed quilt boxes and inserted winter patties into each hive. Quilt boxes contain burlap and wood shavings that can absorb condensation. Moisture is a killer of bees in the winter. The bee cluster stays about 80 degrees F, and moisture can condense on the inner cover of the hive. The quilt box catches the condensation instead of letting it drip back onto the bees. Most of our bees have lots of stored honey, but the winter patties are an extra source of nutrition just in case they need it. Since the bees are all snuggled in for the winter, I decided to write about what I have been doing to transform my flower garden into a monarch waystation.

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