Feed the Bees Please!

Editor’s note:
This post was written during the site’s earliest beekeeping season and reflects first-season thinking around forage and feeding. It’s kept as a record of early decisions and assumptions, not as a feeding or planting guide.

Wildflower Aromatic Mix. Wildflower Pollinator Mix. Wildflower Butterfly and Songbird Mix. Wildflower Bouquet Mix. Wildflower Butterfly and Hummingbird Mix.

What do you choose?

At the time, the answer was simple: all of them.

Early in the first season, there was a strong belief that more forage planted nearby would automatically lead to better outcomes for the bees. Ten pounds of each mix went into the ground with the hope that it would quickly turn into a reliable food source once the colonies arrived.

Of course, planting does not equal immediate forage.

Seed takes time to establish, and early spring offers limited natural food sources in many areas. Trees and early weeds were beginning to wake up, but the landscape was still sparse. Like many beginners, early feeding was used while natural forage was still limited in the surrounding environment.

At the same time, it was easy to forget an important reality: bees do not rely solely on what is planted right next to their hive. They routinely forage miles beyond their immediate surroundings, making use of resources that are often invisible to new beekeepers.

Much of the early focus was on controlling and improving what could be seen and planted nearby. With experience, it became clearer that while local planting can help, bees operate within a much larger and more complex landscape.

The yard itself was designed to be visually appealing as well as functional. In addition to seed mixes, perennial plantings were added with the expectation that they would eventually contribute to a more diverse environment. Over time, it became apparent that aesthetics mattered far more to the beekeeper than to the bees.

The hives themselves reflected similar priorities. Different finishes, covers, and visual consistency were part of the early planning. Looking back, most of those choices mattered far less than good placement, observation, and patience.

Understanding how a hive functions within its environment matters more than any single planting decision. Over time, experience shifted attention toward learning how bees adapt, forage, and make use of resources on their own rather than trying to engineer ideal conditions.

For a broader understanding of how hives function as systems, see the Hive page.
For more context on early beekeeping expectations and realities, the Beekeeping 101 guide provides a clearer starting point.

Looking back, this post captures an early belief that more action and more intervention would naturally lead to better results. Experience gradually replaced that belief with an appreciation for observation, restraint, and letting bees do what they have evolved to do well.

The biggest lesson from that first season was simple: enthusiasm is common, patience is learned.