Beemore Native

To our donors and sponsors!!
Again, Thank you so much!
Together we can achieve a great many things for nature!

Mt. Morris, Wisconsin
March 12th, 2021

Beemore is back on the scene with our friend, Biology and Entemology Professor, Israel Del Toro, together we are using the weekend to get a preview of the prairies prior to the 2021 season.

The prairie here is getting ready to pop off in the next month or so! Parts of this prairie have been selectively burned and top seeded back in fall with hand picked native species from this prairie and also from within this region. We specifically spread heavier on the species that are not already here with the intent of increasing diversity and plant partnerships for the future of this one location.

As for our onsight honeybees:
We had three live colonies at years end, two were weak but had plenty of stores, and because we don't treat or feed materials that they didn't make, those two weak colonies failed. Disappointing, but expected and their demise provides us with fresh opportunities to further our underlying goals.

The surviving colony had been extremely strong all year in 2020 and it was the one colony we felt may have the adaptive abilities to survive all of our human caused stimuli.
The addition of surviving the wrath of mother natures winter, was even more impressive!They weathered a ten day stretch of - 20°'s, and more snow than we have seen in recent years.

These ladies had gone into winter completely naked, with only a moisture box filled full with Oak leaves to wick off the condensation they create while keeping themselves nice and toasty through the coldest of days.

This method is not traditional by any means but our goal isn't to keep bees comfortable while accidently giving genetically weak bees a leg up that nature wouldn't have given.
This kind of beautiful brutality is not easy on our human emotions...but by embracing natures true path, will pay off in ways that are not seen, nor possible as a viable route by today's hyper profiteering mentality towards nature.

We honor nature, all the pollinators and our stewarding ancestors by letting nature choose the path of those creatures we steward and love.
Many of us wish to see pollinators in a future that does not bode well for them if we never dare to break from our anthropogenicly focused past and present.

This is how we get there.
This is how our progeny sees pollinators in prairies rather than only in museums.

A big THANK YOU to all of our sponsors!
We can NOT manage to do this without you!
💛🐛🦋🐝🖤

First Non Crocus flower found here in Central Wisconsin in our native rain garden, and it's an Aster?
Hmm🤔😁
I wonder if she was a just a wee baby bud before winter hit, and waited all this time to let her tiny lil Aster hang out😅🤷‍♂️

We have had many talks with pesticide "applicators" and we have successfully shut them down from spraying if we can catch them by using our proximity to honeybee hives that are listed on Driftwatch.

If you can show an applicator that there is indeed a colony even a mile away, they will be forced to call their local manager, who will then call us to attempt to resolve it somehow so they can still spray and profit.

But if you are dogged, they will eventually back off, and who hired them will try to hire someone else, and we begin again.

Eventually there is no applicator left in the area willing to risk the fallout of exposure should those hive canaries kick the bucket with residue of their product in that colony.

This has been a public service message.

Biting backfire: Some mosquitoes actually benefit from pesticide application The common perception that pesticides reduce or eliminate target insect species may not always hold. Jennifer Weathered and Edd Hammill report that the impacts of agricultural pesticides on assemblages of aquatic insects varied resulting in distinct ecological winners and losers within aquatic commu...

Appleton, WI
February 11th, 2021
7:15am
-5° F (-20.5° C)

You think you're cold?
Let me tell you what I think about all winter.

Yes, I am cold too, bitter cold is harsh on humans.
But humans including myself get very little consideration from me this time of year.

It's the bees and other pollinators that are ALIVE and not hibernating or incubating(eggs in wait) in these conditions.
Honeybees are doing all they can to keep their queen warm and she must be kept warm to stay alive and productive, and she can live many seasons if her workers are strong in numbers, because they will literally kill themselves to do so.

Mourning Cloak Butterflies are very much awake, alive, and staring unblinkingly into our winter void, holding out in a crack, or crevice going completely unnoticed until being the very first butterfly to be seen in spring, almost anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon. They are the longest lived butterfly species (11 months), and they literally have anti-freeze properties that flow through their veins to keep their cells from freezing, and rupturing like anything else, including ourselves (frostbite).

These creatures are cold blooded, their mobility and metabolism is directly subjected to current conditions. Above 45°F? Flying free. Below 45°? Slow as molasses. Below 32°F? Not moving, but very much alive and aware.
-22°?? Fuuuucchh..😮😲🥶

So maybe next time that cold wind bites at your exposed skin? Remember these pollinators, these beautiful insects. Because by comparison we have it easy, we can warm up, we can shelter in our comfy human terrariums and mini human zoolike habitats.

They truly have it harsh, yet they weather through it all without a single complaint, and emerge with gratitude and grace.

"Winter Wonder yields Frozen Poses"

Mt. Morris, Wisconsin.
December 31st, 2020

A trek into the field to look in on conditions after a decent snowstorm brings new opportunities to see nature with her ever-changing face, observing her own observer and steward.

We came out to clear snow off the hives and check on activity levels. (Currently 3 for 3🤞)
And to use the fresh snow as a canvas to see where we spread what species of seed.
Were we can, we try to create a brushed painting effect using the various species characteristics to create a natural appearance as the new seedlings mature over the next several seasons.

Approaching native restoration in this manner is time consuming and requires a bit of intentional deference to the ways of nature.
Hand spreading native seed in this way makes us feel a bit like Bob Ross with a pallete of seeds for paint in a Winter scene, while Bob Ross is currently painting it.
It is soothing and magical, and even in the cold of Winter it brings thoughts of Spring and Summer to warm the mind and offer future hope to the heart.