SPRING DO COMETH!

* This article first appeared in the February 2023 issue of Bee Culture Magazine. *

Last weekend marked the return of daylight savings time and with that comes an array of sensory cues that inform us spring is on the way. My idle mind truly knows not what it wants during the cold, dreary days of winter, so I long for extended daylight, warmer temps, buds opening, and the familiar trill of Red-winged Blackbirds, kon-ka-reeeee! As the bees resume daily flights, we embark on another season of beekeeping, making our rounds to the apiaries, assessing winter losses, and preparing for early spring splits.

The method outlined below allows us to make nucleus colonies from overwintered stock while most beekeepers in my region are still coming out of their winter slumber. By implementing a version of the double screen bottom board, we are able to begin working the bees in late March once lows stop dipping below 32° F and drones are abundant.

Our colonies are overwintered in ten frame deeps with a medium super on top. This setup permits us to fill the medium with frames of honey in the fall, providing ample stores during the winter. The medium also acts as a buffer for the queen to begin laying in come spring. They are stacked one colony over the other, in customized brood chambers. Our brood chambers feature a deep hive body that is screwed into a double screen bottom board. The bottom board is the same footprint as the hive body with four (4) evenly spaced, double screen ventilation ports cut out. We run these bottoms all year long as the ventilation ports allow warm air to be exchanged amongst the two colonies during winter and assists with thermoregulation in the summer.

WORKING TOWARDS AN INCREASE

The first step in the spring is to move the top story colonies to another apiary so that we can begin working the colonies underneath. Some of you are familiar with the term “equalizing” and it is the first step of your spring management plan. Equalizing is exactly how it sounds, the act of boosting weaker colonies with frames of brood from stronger colonies, making all the hives in the apiary equal. We equalize after we have taken the first round of splits from our colonies. As you will see below, these first splits are not as invasive as a full-on hive inspection that would accompany equalization. Our temps are still unstable this time of year, so we try to refrain from busting up the brood nest too much for a few more weeks.

We begin by removing the telescoping cover and flipping it upside down to provide a suitable area to stack the medium super. There is no reason to remove the inner cover as this will likely trigger a defensive response from the colony. We have found that in early spring, the queen is typically in the medium super and is already laying it up. For the time being, we remove the medium, set it aside, and begin going through the brood chamber underneath.

We bring with us an extra telescoping cover that is also flipped upside down and an empty deep to stack on it. We begin by going through a couple frames inside the brood nest, assessing the colony’s strength, and checking the queen’s viability. All of our queens are marked; therefore, we give a quick look for the queen before shaking the adhering bees back into the colony. If located, the queen is caged and set aside while we conduct our manipulations. These quick frame audits usually give us a pretty good idea about the overall strength of the colony. If we encounter a weaker hive, one that is not yet worthy of being split, we close it up and give them another couple of weeks before re-assessing.

We then begin dividing the parent colony with the desired split. We remove a frame of resources (honey/nectar & pollen), a frame of mostly sealed brood, two frames of various stages of egg and larva, and give them to the split. While doing this we are also looking for larva that has just emerged and is suitable for notching. When notching, we take the flat end of our hive tool and push it through the wax, searing the bottom edge of the cells containing the chosen larva. After making contact with the plastic foundation, we push the hive tool down at an angle, crimping the wax underneath. This extra space allows the bees to draw out appropriately sized queen cells in older combs. Because of their rigidity, older combs present problems in frame-based queen rearing as the workers aren’t able to construct suitable sized cells because old wax isn’t as pliable as freshly drawn.

The transferred frames are grouped together and positioned in the middle of the split. We finish the split by filling the rest of the hive body with drawn frames on each side of the brood nest. The parent colony receives the same treatment. With the prolificness of spring as their guiding light, the bees in the parent colony quickly begin working the empty combs and recover from the split in about a week’s time. When managed throughout the season, this early division of strong, overwintered colonies also reduces swarming in our production hives.

The medium super is placed back on top of the parent colony, the queen is released (if caged), and a queen excluder is placed on top. The split is then placed on top of the queen excluder with the inner and telescoping covers on top. The hive is left alone for the next 24 hours during which time the bees will divide themselves accordingly with whatever number of bees are needed to cover and care for the developing brood within the split.

THE DEVIL IS IN THOSE FINE DETAILS

The next day we return to the apiary with our customized brood chambers. We remove the telescoping and inner covers and then simply transfer the frames over from the split. Once complete, the empty deep and queen excluder is removed, and the new colony set in its place with the entrance facing the opposite direction. The double screen bottom inhibits pheromone exchange from the parent colony; therefore, the bees in the split quickly realize that they are without a queen and begin queen rearing procedures. Although being situated in the same apiary can result in some minor drifting, the new entrance is unfamiliar to the bees and cuts down on the number of bees that will return to the queen right colony below.

A week later we return to the apiary to inspect each of the splits, making sure that they are in the process of rearing a queen. The bees typically use the notched frames that were provided; however, some colonies can also be overly ambitious and draw a dozen or more cells. We cull all but three of the best-looking cells per split, ideally with each cell located on a different frame. These separate cells are beneficial if you encounter a split that didn’t begin rearing a queen. When that occurs, you just transfer one of the extra cell frames to the split in need. Once queen rearing is confirmed, the colonies are left alone for three weeks to allow ample time for the queens to develop, emerge, mate, return, and commence laying.

Without the abundance of natural predators this time of the year, most nuptial flights are successful. As the season progresses on into the summer months, rate of return increasingly drops. At the three-week mark, final inspections are performed on the splits. If during this inspection you find a queenless colony, simply transfer another notched frame of appropriately aged larva over to this hive and begin the queen rearing process again.

The splits that have a mated queen are now officially a colony and are transported to a different apiary to build up over the next several weeks of prime weather and bloom. If the weather cooperates, our early spring split procedure takes about 6 weeks from the time of split until customer pick-up. This period allows ample time for all of the biological processes mentioned above as well as an additional 2-3 weeks of laying time for the queen.

Varietal - the Spice of Hive

* This article first appeared in the September 2022 issue of Bee Culture Magazine. *

“Too many bee-keepers fail to realize that the selling of a crop is fully as important as its production. The business part of bee-keeping has been sadly neglected. No set rule can be given as to how a man shall dispose of his crop, but it does seem like very poor business management to send away a crop of honey to some commission merchant, and then sit around all winter when good wages might be made selling honey direct to consumers, or to retail dealers.”

W.Z. Hutchinson

Advanced Bee Culture (1905)

One of the more fruitful approaches that we have taken with our honey production is offering varietals. Since our farm employs only myself and wife Ella, we must obtain the highest return on investment (ROI) possible to compensate for the long, hot days spent in the outyards in addition to the toll that all of the heavy lifting takes on our backs. Many of you are likely in a similar situation, launching your beekeeping enterprise while still working an off-farm job, and paying for your startup with revenue generated from the latter. Since the first several years of any agricultural enterprise typically operates in the red, as you scrape together the funds to purchase equipment and supplies, you are likely not in a position to take on a crew of workers. Although it is more labor intensive, the demand for varietal honey is most certainly there and commands a premium price. Saaaawwweeeeeett right?

Varietal is a term that is typically found within the wine trade and refers to a wine comprised of a single, known grape variety. As it pertains to honey production, varietal can refer to the specific location where the honey was harvested from or if harvested from a predominantly seeded agricultural area where the producer is certain of the crop being grown, can refer to the plant nectar that the honey is comprised of. To complicate that matter further, the same plant nectars can differ annually by region depending upon the areas’ temperatures and rainfall amount.

For us, varietal pertains to our apiary locations and the seasons in which it is harvested. Since each location is in a different region with their own variety of “wild” plants growing seasonally, we cannot decisively identify all of the floral sources that our bees visit and hoard within their hives. This variety of plant nectars result in a subtle nuance of colors and unique flavors in the honeys that we harvest from our different beeyards. The additional effort that is needed to offer varietal honey doesn’t just stop with the seasonal collection of supers from multiple apiaries, but also extends throughout the process of extraction and jarring. The harvested supers are stored, extracted, and jarred separately by location and season. Over the years, we have come to expect certain types of honey from certain apiaries and our customers will often request specific varietals based upon the season and apiary location.

The Proof Is in the Honey

Some of you might have lost interest as soon as I mentioned performing multiple harvests per season, but it is quite rewarding when you do a side-by-side comparison and tasting of the finished product. Additionally, you get to revel in all of the positive feedback that your customers voluntarily shower you with. Growing up in a household that never purchased honey, I was surprised by the volume of positive feedback that we received immediately after we began offering our honey for sale. When lifelong connoisseurs of the sweet nectar started weighing in, stating things like “your honey is pure ambrosia”, it was clear that we must be doing something right, as the majority of all the other commercially available honey is highly adulterated, consisting of non-descript colors and flavors that consumers have grown accustomed to. When you offer a genuine, raw and minimally processed product, folks take notice to its quality and are obliged to shell out more for your craft.

The distinct colors, viscosity, flavors, and aroma of varietal honeys all come down to where our bees forage. In the United States, there are over three hundred different types of honey that originate from different floral sources. Some varietals even smell of the floral source to which they derived from. Their color spectrums can range from nearly clear to a dark brown, and flavors can vary from delectably mild to distinctively bold. As a general rule, the lighter-colored a honey is the milder in flavor it will be. As you approach the darker-colored varietals, you will start to notice a more robust zest on the tongue.

Honey is commercially produced in every state, with certain types of honey deriving from specific floral sources that only grow in certain regions. Clover honey, the most widely harvested varietal in the US, has a pleasing, mild taste and varies in color from nearly clear to amber depending upon the source of clover. Wildflower honey, another common varietal, is a broad term describing honey from miscellaneous and undefined floral sources. Some of the other widespread floral sources that comprise the bulk of the honey crop harvested during the spring and summer months are hard maples, numerous fruit trees and shrubs, dandelions, basswood, buckwheat, and alfalfa. Fall flows are not guaranteed and when they do occur, are highly prized by the beekeeper as they help to lessen the burden of fall feeding. During bumper years, however, the industrious beekeeper can reap one last harvest of her crop which results in a distinct honey deriving from our native aster and goldenrod families of flowers.

Another varietal that has received a lot of buzz in recent years although not in the typical sense that honey is used is Manuka honey harvested in New Zealand. This particular honey’s antibacterial properties are potent enough for it to be considered as an effective wound dressing. To pick at the scab a little further, there are a number of acids that are present within honey such as formic, citric, and gluconic. Gluconic is the dominant acid and is produced by the action of bee enzymes on some of the glucose molecules within the honey. The acidity boosts the antibacterial properties of honey, as most bacteria thrive in neutral conditions. Hydrogen peroxide is also produced by the production of gluconic acid, further inhibiting the growth of bacteria.

Honey Prices & Consumption on the Rise

In recent months, reports of honey shortages worldwide in conjunction with the ongoing efforts of the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA), have resulted in a gradual rise in domestic honey prices. Thanks to the AHPA, the testing of imported honey is now mandated and has directly impacted the volume of questionable “honey” that is now being imported into the U.S. Less honey means higher price yields for reputable honey producers here in the states who no longer need to compete with so much of the illegal dumping of questionable honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

In early 2020, the price paid to U.S. honey producers ranged from $1.50 – $1.80 per pound, but over the last several months has risen to the $2.30 – $2.50 mark on average. These prices are representative of wholesale, bulk or barrel prices which doesn’t incur the additional expense of individual jars, labels, and marketing to retail outlets. Our current wholesale pricing for a one pound (16 oz.), shelf ready jar of varietal honey is $13. The shops that we supply retail our honey for $18 - $20 a jar and their customers anxiously await its return each season. Despite increasing our production incrementally each season, we can never produce enough honey to meet the customer demand.

If that weren’t good enough news, the National Honey Board Consumer Attitudes & Usage Study for 2021 reported significant upticks in honey usage over the past year. Data from the study cited multiple reasons as to why consumers selected honey as their most preferred sweetener. Some of the participants reasons for consuming honey included that it was ‘natural’, ‘good for the environment’, ‘organic’, ‘a source of antioxidants’, and ‘flavorful’. This growing demand for honey in the United States was further confirmed by data taken from the USDA Sugar and Sweeteners Outlook which reported that 571 million pounds of honey was consumed in 2020, a rise of about 8 percent from the previous year.

If Your Time to You is Worth Savin’

* This article first appeared in the June 2022 issue of Bee Culture Magazine. *

Recently, a friend of mine suggested that I watch “an old but prophetic” movie titled, “Soylent Green”. The film, loosely based on Harry Harrison’s 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! features a young Charlton Heston playing the lead role of Detective Sergeant Thorn. Eerily, the movie is set during the year 2022, in New York city, population “40 million people”. I would bet that when Harrison penned this work of fiction some 56 years ago, he thought this number of 40 million to be overly inflated, an absurd amount of people. Or didn’t he?

According to the most recent numbers provided by the Untied States Census Bureau, New York city had a reported population of 8,804,190 people in April 2020. This was just before the Covid-19 pandemic had fully sunk its teeth into not just our bodies, but our economy, livelihood, bank account, and most importantly, our spirit. At the time I am composing this article (February, 2022), New York city has reported a total of 39,011 deaths and a staggering 631,000 jobs lost as a result of Covid-19.

As I watched the movie, I certainly felt the prophetic-ness that my friend had alluded to. Staircases full of sleeping vagrants with physically, nowhere else left to go. Everyone appeared uncomfortable and hot, always in a flux of sweat due to the over crowdedness and increased warming of our sphere. Most of the fresh produce items that we in the western world take for granted on a daily basis, are the most precious commodities in Harrison’s projection of 2022. Fruits, vegetables, …beef, all available in limited quantities and are only attainable by the most elite. The bulk of the population, can only afford to sustain on a series of man-made, food items that provide just a semblance of nutrition, while large corporations and government profits. Sounding more prophetic by the paragraph, isn’t it?

So, has it already begun?

I try to consume a healthy, whole foods diet, and I can personally attest that since the pandemic, my American dollar goes nowhere near as far as it once did just 2 years ago. To add insult to injury, Covid also provided an opportunity for industry to price gouge consumers as a result of mandatory governmental shutdowns, supply chain issues, ships stuck at ports, etc. The same number of fresh produce items now costs me on average $80 - $120 more then what I was paying just 2 years ago. Yet my wages have stayed the same. Bring on that overly processed, fast food dollar menu!

In a documentary that debuted in January titled “The Green Planet”, renown naturalist Sir David Attenborough warns, “the world, it depends upon plants and we treat them with so little thought, so little care, and exterminate them without little thought or little care. And we will pay the price.” Attenborough continues, “We caused it; our kind of industrialization is one of the major factors in producing this change in climate. So, we have a moral responsibility even if we didn’t cause it, we would have a moral responsibility to do something about it.” Despite being 95 years young, and living his life day-by-day, Attenborough still feels the responsibility to utilize his worldwide platform to help garner attention to this impending crisis that will begin to affect all of us with more regularity in the coming decades. On biodiversity, Attenborough offers, “it’s never been more important for us to understand the effects of biodiversity loss, of how it is that we ourselves are responsible for it.”

As beekeepers, we are all too familiar with the negative impacts that increased industry has had on our bees, yet rarely contemplate it any further than how it affects our own operation or wallet. The trial is over and the verdict is in. The loss of biodiversity around the world, and especially the reduced biodiversity of insect populations, poses extremely serious consequences down the road for us. Earths conqueror.

The Staggering Loss of Biodiversity

In December 2020, Nature magazine published a report that found that human-made materials now exceeded the mass of all living things on the planet. Let that sink in. The concrete, steel, plastics, and other man-made materials now physically weigh more than the people, plants, bacteria, and animals that with whom we share the planet.

One of the most obvious effects of our massive ecological footprint is the staggering loss of biodiversity that we now see. The recently-created Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has been given the task of performing regular and timely assessments of knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services. According to the IPBES chair Robert Watson, “the health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”

More specifically, the IPBES reports that well over one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within the coming decades. Though species have gone extinct throughout human history, the scale of the threat of extinction has never been higher than today. The report goes on to find that the average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20% in the past century.

Unfortunately, many people associate this drastic loss of biodiversity with the disappearance of exotic species of plants or animals on the other side of the world. The biologist trying to spot the elusive and nearly extinct Guatemalan Small Eared Shrew. We fail to realize that a decline in biodiversity could have palpable and realistic effects on our own livelihoods. This selective form of naivete’ is self-serving and affords us the luxury of not taking action. Of not implementing changes to our daily lives that would affect the greater good.

Of course, biodiversity is of fundamental importance for all of life on earth. Besides creating more resilient and vibrant ecosystems, biodiversity is at the core of ecological life support. The millions of unseen species of plants, bacteria, fungi, and insects combine to create the conditions for life upon which we depend. Oxygen to breathe, clean water to drink, pollination of plants for the crops we grow, pest control, wastewater treatment, and thousands of other “ecosystem services” all depend on the complex interactions of bio-diverse ecosystems.

The Underappreciated Importance of Insects

Insect populations around the world are similarly affected by the rising threat of species extinction. According to one recent estimate, more than 40% of all insects are declining worldwide with one third of insect species being placed on the endangered list. This data suggests that the rate of decline for ALL insects is at least 2.5% annually. While we may worry about white rhinos and other emblematic species that are in danger of extinction, insects face extinction rates that are 8 times higher than vertebrates!

So, what would a world without insects look like? For one, the amount of food that we could produce would be greatly reduced. The USDA finds that “three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce.” A significant loss of pollinator insects would severely affect the production of crops such as apples, almonds, avocados, cucumbers, onions, and hundreds of other common foods. Even without complete extinction, the reduced pollination rates of these plants due to drops in insect population would lead to lower seed or fruit set, lower plant regeneration rates and other, cascading effects on other animal species that rely on plants and their products for food.

Insects also play an important role in other vital ecological functions including pest control, decomposition, and maintenance of wildlife species.

Native Pollinator Loss in the Midwest

One of the major causes of the massive drop in insect populations around the world (often referred to as the “Insect Apocalypse”) is the increasing usage of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and other synthetic agricultural chemicals. A 2019 study determined that America’s agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to honeybees, and likely other insects, than it was 25 years ago. This landscape toxicity is closely related to the widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

So how much pesticides are we actually using here in the land of the free? In 2007, for example, we collectively sprayed 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides on our lawns, parks, and farm fields, which is almost a quarter of the total worldwide pesticide use. In my home state of Indiana, a recent USDA report finds that “herbicide was used on 99 percent of Indiana's 5.7 million corn acres during 2000 while insecticides were applied to 30 percent of the acreage.”

The toxicity of Indiana’s farm fields is not only leaching into our watersheds and affecting aquatic organisms, but is also directly responsible for the loss of native pollinators in the region. According to Purdue University, the native pollinator communities in Indiana face many threats. During the past 15 years, researchers have documented reduced populations of honey bees, bumble bees, and several butterfly and moth species. While bees are primarily affected by the use of certain types of pesticides, other Indiana insect species are dropping due to loss of habitat. For example, over the past 100 years, the Karner Blue Butterfly (Plebejus melissa samuelis) has seen its population drop by 99%, mostly due to habitat loss and the slow disappearance of Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis), which is its primary food source.

What Can You Do to Assist Native Pollinator Populations?

The loss of biodiversity, and specifically the drop in native pollinator populations, is an issue that affects all of us. While we may consider installing solar panels or purchasing an electric vehicle as a way to limit carbon emissions that are driving global climate change, most people have no idea how to contribute to the resilience and resurgence of insect populations. To end, I offer a few strategies for supporting and encouraging pollinators and insect populations in general.

•         Plant a pollinator-friendly lawn: Instead of monoculture turf grass that requires an enormous amount of synthetic chemicals that hurt insect populations, consider sowing native wildflower seed for a more beautiful, healthier, and pollinator-friendly lawn.

•         Eliminate pesticide use in your landscape: For both your yard and garden, eliminate all pesticide use, especially neonicotinoids. There are several “biological pest controls” that are extremely effective for gardens and lawns, and are much healthier for both humans and other non-target insects.

•         Extend your flowering season: Planting a diversity of flowering plants and trees can also help increase the food supply for native pollinators. When planning your landscape, consider purchasing flowers, trees, herbs, and other plants that flower throughout the spring, summer, and fall. 

And if you’ve never seen it, pick-up or stream a copy of Soylent Green. There are several other eye-opening scenes in the film that I haven’t touched on here for fear of spoiling the film for those that want to watch it. Some of these things are already occurring and others I fear will soon begin happening if we all just sit idle and trust in our government.

Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam

And admit that the waters around you have grown

And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone

if your time to you is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'

- Bob Dylan The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964)

Great Honey. Greater Cause.

* This article first appeared in the April 2022 issue of Bee Culture Magazine. *

I am a beekeeper, albeit unintentionally. My introduction to apis mellifera is likely similar to that of others born before 1990. During those what seemed like endless, summer days of my youth, it was commonplace to step on a honey bee while running barefoot through your yard. As the helpless, forager bee cast her tiny sting into the underside of my foot, I never would have imagined that roughly thirty years later, I would choose to get stung on a routine basis. Not just stung, I mean STUNG! Right between the eyes kind of stung!

I recall honey bees engorging on the small, white flowers that grew in everyone’s yard. Back then, the Midwest, and a lot of the US was covered in white clover and with the clover, came the bees. But alas, this was a period considered by many to be the “hay day” of commercial beekeeping. Modern-day beekeeping has evolved into a constant toggle between strategy and defense when combating the multitude of evils that await every altruistic forager who dares to leave the hive.

Climate change, broadscale pesticide applications in agriculture, a booming lawn care industry, and rapid declines in natural habitat and forage, currently present severe challenges for the hive organism, and anyone that dares to don a bee suit in 2022. Lest we forget our nemesis, V. destructor!

The long and (the) short of it is this. Pollinators are declining rapidly and forgive me for the overused analogy, but it certainly will take a village of like-minded, unrelenting, forward-thinking individuals to get us out of the red so to speak for the countless checks that we have written at the earth’s expense.

Backgrounds & Beginning with Honey Bees

My entry into beekeeping came after we purchased our farm in February 2017. The farm, located roughly 40 minutes from our primary residence in the suburbs, had been abandoned for the better part of 18 years and contained an heirloom pear orchard. At that time, our primary focus, and still part of our core ethos today was in land restoration and wildlife conservation. Our goals early on were to remove the unsightly, overgrowth of invasives that were choking out the native plants and propagate perennial, food producing shrubs and trees. Ultimately, we hoped to not only re-establish the natives, and develop a functioning, perennial food system, but also provide a welcoming sanctuary for ourselves and the diverse fauna that call this farm home.

Already having an orchard that was producing on site, it seemed fitting to find a local beekeeper and offer up some acreage for them to place hives on in exchange for their mentorship and helping us manage our hives. We found that beekeeper, er... should I say bee-haver and I soon discovered that his definition of beekeeping and mine differed drastically. Ella and I both have backgrounds in biology, and in another life, were quite successful in our work with reptiles and amphibians. Our specific area(s) of focus were with the true, Giant African Bullfrog (P. adspersus) or Pyxie frog as they are commonly referred to and the ever popular, Bearded Dragon lizard (P. vitticeps) to which we played an instrumental role in developing a genetically sound example of a newfound, dominant trait. But I digress.

Through his “mentoring” I learned quickly that his method of keeping bees involved letting them collect as much honey as they could collect throughout the beekeeping season, harvest the entire crop at summers end, and then leave the bees to their own avail in the fall. The following spring, he would head down south, buy more package bees, and repeat the process. Needless to say, nothing felt good about that, not to mention that he was also putting high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) feed on his colonies all season long, thus the bulk of his “honey” crop that he was selling to local retail shops was mostly evaporated and capped HFCS. I would learn that this is an all-too-common practice in the honey industry and one that we vowed to shy away from at all costs with our operation.

What I haven’t touched on yet is that during this time, I completely absorbed myself in everything that is the European honey bee. Honey bee biology, breeding honey bees, queen rearing techniques, making colony increases, honey production, wax rendering, EVERYTHING!! I scoured literature from the 1800’s, sourced publications from overseas, listened to beekeeping podcasts, watched You-Tube videos, etc. After taking in so much information from so many different sources, I quickly realized the relevance of the common beekeeping quote, “Ask 10 beekeepers the same question, get 12 different answers.”

So, now with several thousands of dollars in empty bee equipment and the knowledge that we should have possessed prior to ever purchasing our first bottom board, we started over. We spent the first couple of years amassing queen bees from some of the nation’s top queen producers hailing from climates colder than ours. We knew that in order to have a sustainable apiary, we were going to have to start with exemplary genetics and then slowly impart the traits that were of the utmost importance to us. There is a lot of credence in Aesop’s tortoise. Slow and steady DOES win the race!

So, tortoise we did! Slowly but surely, year after year, we were seeing higher success rates of over wintering colonies and stronger queens coming into each spring. I find myself every year telling Ella, “These are the healthiest bees we’ve ever had!” I know that as beekeepers, we are getting better at our craft as our management techniques, and knowledge base evolves, but I can’t assume all of the credit for having better bees’ season after season. The bees do the bulk of the heavy lifting in our operation, and we are merely there to maintain the beeyards, address problems that arise, and apply treatments as needed.

Those Fluttering Embers of Orange & Black

Shortly after we began clearing out the invasive species that riddled the acreage, something magical happened. Tall, fragrant, rose-colored flowers began to pop up in several of the patches that had been cleared. Not having the taller brush and various sized tree saplings to compete with, the flowers were now able to reach up into the sky and grab the precious solar rays that they so desperately needed. As spring waned to summer, the patches began to hum with life from within.

We worked the sultry, days of summer away and soon were greeted by a frequent visitor to the farm. Around mid-July, we started to see in excess these fluttering embers of orange and black, dancing about the sky. The embers were Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and like the honey bees of my youth, I too recalled seeing them regularly growing up, but not as much today. A connection perhaps?

The days in the Farmer’s Almanac stacked and by the end of August, there were so many monarchs on the farm, that we were dodging them as we mowed. They frequented the patches of flowers that now broadcasted a constant waft of floral sweetness throughout the sun-beaten fields. One day, as I was cutting along the edge of one of the patches, I saw the most intricately striped, yellow and black caterpillar crawling along the edge of one of the flowers large, waxy leaves. A closer inspection revealed that the caterpillar was munching on the leaf like a diligent farmer harvesting his crop. Left to right, right to left, I watched in disbelief as the cat (butterfly talk for caterpillar) consumed almost the entire leaf in just a few minutes time! Reveling in what I had just witnessed, I decided that it was time to research this flower and see what kind of ecosystem I had unfolding in front of my eyes.

My research quickly yielded that the “flowers” in question, that now grew prolifically in several patches on our farm, was the Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.) plant, the primary host plant to the monarch butterfly here in the Midwest. The tiger striped caterpillar was the monarch’s larval form, and due to a consistent decline in Common milkweed nationwide, the monarch is in serious trouble.

Fate & Honey

We never envisioned ourselves being beekeepers and were as equally blindsided by the impact that monarchs have had on our lives. Fate certainly has a peculiar way of showing itself and when it does, I tend to lean into the momentum. Countless Google searches kept bringing us back to Dr. Orley “Chip” Taylor and the revolutionary work that he and his team were doing at Monarch Watch. Prior to founding Monarch Watch in 1992, Chip ran several colonies of bees himself, and spent twenty-two years working for the Department of Agriculture with “killer bees” in Central and South America.

Monarch Watch is a nonprofit education, conservation, and research program based at the University of Kansas, that focuses on the monarch butterfly, its habitat, and the spectacular fall migration. Their popular, tagging program was launched during their first year, and has turned in to the cornerstone of their operation.

The Monarch Watch Tagging Program is a large-scale, community science project that was initiated to help understand the dynamics of the monarch's spectacular, fall migration through mark and recapture. The tagging process helps to answer questions about the origins of monarchs that reach Mexico, the timing and pace of the migration, mortality during the migration, and changes in their geographic distribution. The tagging process involves applying a pressure-sensitive, adhesive tag with a unique code, to the underside of the monarch’s wing. These lightweight, all-weather tags were designed by Monarch Watch specifically for tagging purposes and do not harm them nor interfere with their flight.

Each fall, more than a quarter of a million tags are distributed by Monarch Watch to thousands of volunteers across North America who tag monarchs as they migrate through their area. These "community scientists" capture monarchs throughout the migration season, record the tag code and date, butterfly’s gender, and geographic location, then apply the tag and release them. At the end of the tagging season, this data is submitted to Monarch Watch and added to their extensive database to be used in further research.

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When it came time to harvest our first crops of honey, we decided to piggyback on the nation-wide platform that honey bees were receiving, to try and spread some additional awareness about the not-so-known decline in monarch populations and the milkweed plants that are needed to support them. Being a smaller operation, we can afford to do some of the more labor-intensive things that the larger producers don’t do.

So, we set out to do smaller, seasonal harvests that would mimic the monarch’s life cycle here in the Midwest. Sure, it was an unorthodox approach to traditional honey design and packaging, but any concerns that we had were quickly quelled. The seasonal, 3-part series has been an absolute scream with our audience and the packaging won a Graphic Design USA title in 2019, the first year that it was put into production.

Part of our mission is giving back to and supporting organizations whom we believe strongly in. A portion of all proceeds from the sale of our monarch themed, raw honey is donated annually to Monarch Watch. In addition, we also partnered with them to help spread awareness about the importance of planting milkweed within our local communities. Our “Plant Milkweed Support Monarchs” statement tee’s have been equally successful and has helped generate some additional revenue for Monarch Watch that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to contribute because of our limited honey production.

Grassland Habitat – A “Sensitive” Subject

Grassland birds are naturally adapted to native grasslands and prairie ecosystems throughout much of North America. While these are of the highest quality and “ideal” nesting habitats, they are now extremely rare and are fading quickly. As our grasslands fade, our resident bird species are forced to overcome and adapt. Nowadays, surrogate grasslands (hayfields, small grain farms, and fallow pastures) provide most of the important nesting habitat for our grassland-nesting birds. Strip habitats (utility right of ways, highway corridors, and field borders) that are maintained in an early successional state also offer valuable nesting and foraging habitats for several species.

Grassland birds rely upon herbaceous cover for natural foraging and nesting behavior. There are many nuances to the individual cover requirements amongst the different species. Some species are area-sensitive and require vast acreages of unbroken grassland habitat for nesting. Others are edge-sensitive, and shy away from fragmented landscapes to which they perceive as threats to them and their nests. As I have touched on in previous posts, the steps that we take as land practitioners that are meant to invite some species can be deterrents to others. What I hope to provide here is a CliffsNotes version of a much broader and highly complicated subject. Who would have thought that grass could be so dense (pun intended)?

Variables to Consider When Developing a Plan

Ask any neighborhood “Randy” who spends hundreds of dollars annually maintaining his chemically laden green turf, and you quickly find out that not all “grass” is created equal. This also applies to native and non-native grasses. The density and height, as well as surrounding land usages all influence the assemblage of birds that occur within a given area. Generally speaking, large, undisturbed plots of grassland habitat is more desirable and provides the most diverse grouping of grassland bird species. The expansive area allows birds to fulfill most of their courtship, nesting, brood-rearing, feeding, and leisure behavior with the added security requirements they prefer during nesting season. In addition, the larger habitat will also provide winter and migratory cover for many species.

Adequate cover of undisturbed grassland is among the greatest factors affecting grassland bird populations, and the continued loss and conversion of grassland breeding and nesting habitat remains the largest threat to the future of many of our grassland birds. Preserving existing and properly designing new grassland communities will help to maintain current species that are in decline. With proper management, local grassland bird populations will increase, and populations of other wildlife species will benefit from these same habitats.

Since hundreds or thousands of fallow acres aren’t lying in wait, it is up to us to think outside of the box and look for ways to improvise and work with what we do have available. Like pocket prairies for pollinators, the same approach can be taken with several of our grassland and early successional bird species.

Small Victories – Winning with “Edge-Sensitive” Species

As we have already established, most grassland species prefer large acreages of unfragmented habitat. Fragmentation in respect to land use is defined as the existence of a number of spatially separate plots of land which are managed singly. Typically, these smaller, isolated plots with heavily wooded edges have limited potential to support grassland birds. Interspersion (diversify in intervals) of various types of grasslands will maximize habitat quality for some species, however, interspersion of grassland habitat with woody vegetation or other land usage that would fragment the area can be detrimental to others.

Edge-sensitive grassland birds are those with the lowest tolerance for fragmented habitats and are typically grassland dependent when it comes to nesting behavior. When grasslands are fragmented, many grassland birds are subjected to nest predation from crows, blue jays, skunks, raccoons, opossums, foxes, and you guessed it, domestic cats.

Grassland birds that are edge-sensitive include the Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), and Savannah (Passerculus sandwichensis) and Henslow’s (Centronyx henslowii) sparrows. The Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) and Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarumare) are moderately sensitive to habitat fragmentation. Grassland birds that are tolerant to an abundance of edge include the Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), Vesper (Pooecetes gramineus), Field (Spizella pusilla), and Song (Melospiza melodia) sparrows, Dickcissel (Spiza americana), and Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas).

On landscapes where intensive row crop agriculture is the dominant land use, we can design strip habitats which are extremely important not only for grassland birds but for other wildlife as well. Grassland bird assemblages will vary with the physical habitat structure and seasonal disturbance patterns (i.e., crop planting & harvesting).

Size Matters – “Area-Sensitive” Species

Many “area-sensitive” grassland bird species require a certain amount of habitat to be present, usually in contiguous patches or unbroken blocks, before individuals will use a given site. Estimates of the minimum size of suitable nesting and breeding habitat required to support breeding populations of grassland birds vary greatly amongst species. If your goal is to support a wide array of grassland-nesting bird species within a given area, then contiguous grassland blocks of at least 500 acres will provide the greatest potential. However, smaller grassland blocks provide viable habitat patches for many grassland bird species. A general rule may be to maximize the size and interconnectedness of grassland habitat patches available, while conducting management actions that maximize the habitat quality within the smaller patches.

Area-sensitive species prefer treeless areas because trees provide shelter for predators. A familiar nemesis of the suburbs, the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) is also common in the countryside, parasitizing nests along wooded edges. Grassland birds that nest in larger blocks of grasslands that are at greater distances from trees see a higher percentage of fledglings take wing. Some area-sensitive species are obligate and depend upon certain plants to successfully function within a given grassland ecosystem.

To confuse the matter even further, the total area requirements vary from species to species and can also vary amongst geographical regions and the landscapes characteristics. For example, the size of habitat patches needed to attract individuals of a given species may be smaller in landscapes that contain a larger amount of grassland and open habitats nearby. 

Management Considerations

When possible, it’s beneficial to take a community or overall landscape approach to your designing, implementation, and management plans. If you own a small grassland, it helps to determine what the surrounding landscapes look like. If other grasslands or agricultural areas are present, then it may be feasible for you to manage for grassland birds despite having smaller acreage to work with. However, if your grassland is surrounded by forest, you may want to reconsider other goals.

 The following guidelines will not necessarily guarantee the presence or absence of certain species. Restoring and enhancing existing grasslands, and reducing fragmentation are hands down the best management options for grassland birds. Whenever you increase the size of a grassland, you increase the likelihood that grassland birds will benefit.

 Some things to consider when managing for grassland birds within your landscape:

 -          To manage for edge-sensitive species, you will need a minimum of 20 acres. Moderately sensitive species need between 10 and 20 acres, and tolerant species need less than 10 acres. These estimates are the minimum amounts these species need to survive. Again, the larger the grassland, the better.

 -          Avoid fragmenting existing grassland areas. If hiking trails are to be developed, restrict activities to the edges of the area. Avoid maintaining hedgerows that may serve as predator perches.

 -          If large tracts of grassland restorations are not possible, establish several patches. Try to incorporate adjacent grassy habitats such as pastures, hayfields, and grassy waterways as connections between the grassland patches or as non-wooded, open edges.

-          Maintain succession in its earliest stages by managing for grasses and sparse shrubs. Manipulations such as burning, and mowing are required to maintain grass productivity typically within three-to-five-year intervals.

 -          Manipulate your grasslands in 1/3 to 1/4 annual rotations. If several fields are maintained, it is better to manipulate one entire field, rather than a portion of each field per rotation. This will reduce fragmentation of your grasslands. However, if you have only one field, do not manipulate the entire field at once as it will displace the grassland birds. If possible, allow some sections to lie idle each year.

 -          Use prescribed burns to increase the productivity of warm season grasses. Conduct burns in early spring (March or April) or late fall (October or November).

 -          Mow grasslands and hayfields between July 15 and August 31. This will reduce the chance of destroying bird nests and discourages the invasion of problem grass species that move in after late season mowing. Cutting height should be about 6 inches.

 -          If you use the grassland for grazing, permit only light activity by livestock, and leave some areas un-grazed by utilizing rotational grazing practices. Do not graze below 6 inches. Moderate grazing may actually benefit additional wildlife species.

 -          Plant or maintain several types of grasslands in your area. A mosaic of tall and short grass fields will provide habitat diversity. If planting only one area, a mixture of warm season grasses and forbs is best. Cool season grasses mixed with legumes is another option.

 -          Create 100 ft. shrub buffers next to forest edges and human habitations to reduce the harsh edge. An alternative to planting shrubs along the edge of a forest is to allow the fire to burn slowly into the woods so as to create a "feathered" edge. Local fire authorities should always be contacted prior to a burn to discuss permits and/or restrictions.

 -          Chemical treatments of grasslands can also be used to control woody plants. Herbicides can be used to control any type of undesirable plants in your grassland, from woody plants to grasses and weeds. Correct application is important. Damage to non-target vegetation or wildlife is possible if you do not follow the labels instructions. Reducing or eliminating the use of insecticides will provide more valuable insect food for birds.

Vernal Ponds in the Landscape

“Old dark sleepy pool...
Quick unexpected frog
Goes plop! Watersplash!”
-Bashō, Japanese Haiku

Vernal ponds are temporary wetlands that provide a vital role in our environment. Although once a common element occurring within our landscapes, most vernal ponds and larger wetlands have been claimed by society. In exchange, these ecological marvels have been replaced by endless miles of road, skyscrapers, parking lots, industrial complexes and millions upon millions of rows of Zea mays. Fortunately, the tide has shifted a bit in recent years and society has begun to show a restored interest in large wetlands and their ecology. As is the case with small, pollinator patches that most everyone can implement regardless of their lot size or budget, small “pocket ponds” can be established within the landscape at a minimal cost and effort. When designed and constructed properly, a vernal pond will look and function just like their naturally occurring counterparts.

A Landscapes Kidneys

Historically, vernal ponds and larger wetlands were formed by the ebb and flow of overflowing rivers, large lakes, and vast oceans. Others were created by natural weather events such as earthquakes, lightning induced fire, and chemical reactions that occurred within the soil. In most cases vernal ponds are shallow, temporary, and are separate from streams and rivers. Because of this, most were drained and filled during the agrarian boom of the late 19th century with advancements in farming techniques and the introduction of mechanized machinery. This backfilling of wetlands continued into modern times as monoculture farming encroached upon countless acres to meet the demands of an ever-growing population that called for more and more food. Larger vernal ponds, because of their size and ability to hold water, were converted into permanent ponds or lakes by government entities and private landowners.

 In the continental U.S. alone, we have lost well over 50% of our historical 220 million wetland acres. Healthy wetlands serve as our landscapes “kidneys” by capturing, holding and filtering water. This “slow release” of surface water during heavy rain events allows time for the water to gradually seep into the surface thus recharging the groundwater supplies. In addition, the slow release reduces runoff, lessening soil erosion and further assists in filtering sediments, chemicals and nutrients within the soil. Research has shown that wetlands can trap at least 50% of dissolved phosphates and 70% of dissolved nitrates that are running off nearby lands before they have a chance to enter our nation’s waterways.

Other incentives to establishing vernal ponds within your landscape are that they provide protection from floods by holding excess rainwater during heavy rain events, they sequester soil carbon thus reducing greenhouse gases, they provide habitat for wildlife and assist in the recovery of rare and declining species, and they provide numerous education and recreational opportunities.

Just What is a Vernal Pond?

Vernal ponds, named for the relationship to the vernal or spring equinox, periodically dry up thus never contain fish. This drying up occurs annually; however, most vernal ponds will dry up during late summer and early fall as temperatures climb and frequent rainfall ceases. Because of the firm soil bed underneath and their ability to hold water, heavy rains may fill them at any time of the year even after they have dried up. It is the temporary aspect of these small wetlands that make them so valuable to the fauna that inhabit them. This wet-dry cycle prevents fish from becoming established, thus allowing critical breeding habitat for amphibians, crustaceans, and insects whom are permitted to function and fulfill their role in our ecosystems.

The key to designing and constructing a successful vernal pond is that it not only holds water but that it also dries up once in a while. In general, ninety (90) or more consecutive days of water are needed over the winter and spring months to allow insect and amphibian larvae to develop. A shallow wetland with a limited watershed, constructed in a sunny location is likely to dry up every year and may not provide enough time for salamander and frog larvae to develop. However, a deep wetland with a large watershed, placed in a shady location may never go dry. It is the balancing act of these core components that prove pivotal when designing and constructing these temporary water features.

A key principle that is often repeated by practitioners in the permaculture world is to be amongst your land, actively observing it for a period of 1-2 years before planning any permanent, land or structural features. This period of observation allows ample time to experience multiple weather events, seasonality, and plant phenology. Immediately after purchasing our farm in Marengo, we experienced a 100-year flood event in early spring and a 200-year event during the summer that completely washed out our roadway just before the newly constructed bridge that crossed Whiskey Run. This bridge, and the surrounding land I feel certain were studied, designed and performed by professional architects and development companies contracted by the county of Crawford. This, however, is just one example showing that despite man’s best efforts, in the end, Mother Nature will ALWAYS win!

By observing these events early on, it forced us to pump the brakes and slow our role a bit as our first inclination when we took possession was to immediately begin improving the area that runs alongside the creek. Fortunately, since that first year, we haven’t experienced any further catastrophic rain events (knocking on wood), but with the ever-changing climate, we are now thinking more rational and know that these events will unfortunately become more normal in the coming years.

Ecology & Wildlife Supported

In North America, approximately one-half of all frog and one-third of all salamander species rely on seasonal/temporary wetlands for their development. Wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus), Spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), and Eastern Spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus holbrookii) larvae are just a few of the amphibians that can successfully mature and emerge from these fishless habitats. In addition, vernal ponds are less likely to contain saprolegnia, a fungus that is detrimental to frog, toad, and salamander eggs and is frequently present in permanent ponds. Vernal ponds also have low numbers of Eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) who prey heavily on other amphibian eggs and larvae.

Waterfowl species such as the Wood duck (Aix sponsa) and Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) use vernal ponds extensively during their migration, consuming insects, crustaceans, and seeds that inhabit these spaces and are within close proximity. Shorebirds, like the Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) and Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), search out and feed on exposed mud flats that are created as water levels drop.

Additionally, reptiles such as the Eastern Box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) and the Eastern Garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) also use vernal ponds as feeding stations as they navigate from one area to another. Numerous bat species use vernal ponds as a source of water and feed on the insects that fly over.

Mosquito, Moscato

Concerns about increased mosquito populations are valid when considering setting up a vernal pond but allow me to ease those concerns.

Yes, mosquito larvae may be present in vernal ponds, developing from egg to adult in less than a week’s time during warmer months. Have no fear though! Salamander, dragonfly, and damselfly larvae, along with many other predatory insects species such as the Water strider (Aquarius remiges) and Backswimmer (Notonectidae), all consume large quantities of developing mosquito larvae.

Adult dragonflies and multiple species of swallows patrol the sky just above the water line during the daytime, preying heavily on the adult mosquitoes that dare make an appearance. Bats frequent these same areas during the night, feeding on mosquitoes and other flying insects. With this type of balanced system, one rarely encounters adult mosquitoes near vernal ponds as their populations are kept in check by the vast array of species that utilize them as a source of food.

You have taken the time to plan. You designed and executed your vernal pond perfectly. Now all that is left to do is to pop the cork on your favorite bottle of aged and fermented grapes, pour yourself a glass, sit back and revel in what you have created!

Hate the Game, Not the Sparrow

My intrigue for the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) was born, err… hatched from sheer opportunity. Several years back, I repurposed a cheap guitar that was missing a few strings and hung it up under our covered deck to serve as a decorative accent. Ella broke out her paints and created a nice, folky design that flowed well with the rest of the décor on our deck. As it would turn out, the missing B and G strings allotted for just enough clearance for a mated pair of adult sparrows to limbo their way through its small, 1” opening. All things considered, I can’t say that I blame them for picking this spot!

Also out of happenstance, the guitar was hung just outside our kitchen window. The hours spent washing dishes and prepping meals, afforded us the luxury of having a front row seat as the pair began constructing their nest within the guitar’s sound hole in early February. Tirelessly the male would fly off, scouring the neighborhood, in search of nesting materials to bring back and hand off to his maiden whom would remain perched on the guitar’s neck, patiently awaiting his return.

Well, it wasn’t soon thereafter that we were greeted with the constant chirping of their first brood whom fledged the nest, ahem… guitar, roughly 2 weeks later. Well, that was cute now, wasn’t it? Kudos to the ‘rents! Great job guys!!

But immediately he was back at it. Gathering nesting materials, bringing them back to the female who now, instead of being perched on the guitar’s neck, spent her days dragging debris and grasses from the sound hole and flying off with it. I also noticed that this time the male, who was now arriving at times when the female was away from the nest, would take the nesting materials inside and fly out a short time later empty handed. It would seem that he too was now playing a role in nest construction. A few weeks later, chirping. A few weeks later, fuzzy headed young perched all over the rails of our deck being taught the curriculum of what it takes to be a proper bird. Again… so cute. What an experience. Nature, I see you!

Then, more nesting material was being gathered. You see where this is going? Wash, rinse, repeat. What began in early spring, greeted May, and was now steamrolling its way through early summer. We were well on our way to amassing a small army of LBJ’s (Little Brown Jobs as sparrows are often referred to) on the deck of our suburban/rural-ish home.

This behavior, this fecundity, is what has accounted for the House sparrow’s, an “invasive” species, exemplary success in setting up permanent residency here and just about every other continent on the globe! It should be stated that this original family of sparrows has went on to remain with this guitar every year for the past 5 years. The typical lifespan of House sparrows in the wild is 4 - 5 years, so I am optimistic that being monogamous and mating for life, the same OG’s are still roaming the wilds of my back yard today! One would think that the unorthodox location of the guitar, the constant foot traffic it receives from large dogs and humans, all would be a deterrent, but as history has told us with this species, it is the primary reason for its success.

On August 21st, 1886 a short time after the House sparrow was introduced into the United States, Dr. W.H. Bergtold, of Buffalo, N.Y. observed:

As regards the number of broods and young reared by a pair of Sparrows in a year, I wish to make a statement and put forth a theory that I have never seen advanced before. I have repeatedly examined nests of this bird containing nearly full-fledged young, two or three young in more or less advanced stages of development, and several eggs of various degrees of incubation, some being nearly fresh, while others were about to break through. I gather from these facts that the Sparrow, at least in some cases, lays and continues to lay a succession of eggs so long as the weather is not too cold; and as the young attain a sufficient amount of strength they are expelled from the nest. Assuming such to be the case we can easily see how much of the incubation work is taken from the parents and thrown on the young, who by their bodily heat and proximity, readily take up such duties (quite unintentionally, I imagine), and also how much work can be given to the proper maintenance of a generous food supply for both the old and young.

This constant stream of outpouring Sparrows accounts for the rapid manner in which this species multiplies.

Albeit an astute observation by Dr. Bergtold, the House sparrow was new to science at the time and not a lot was known about it. Although such cases as witnessed by Dr. Bergtold may occur, it certainly is not the rule, as it is certain that in most cases all the eggs are laid before any are hatched, and all the young leave the nest at about the same time as I have witnessed myself on multiple occasions.

Moreover, it is not necessary to resort to such a theory to account for the rapidity with which the sparrow increases. It is a hardy, prolific, and aggressive little bird, possessed of much intelligence and more then ordinary cunning. It is domestic and gregarious in habit and takes advantage of the protection afforded by its proximity to man, thus escaping nearly all enemies which typically prey upon our native birds.

Its fecundity is amazing, and is reflected in the table I have created below. Of course, the actual increase of the House sparrow is a small fraction of the total shown in the table. But, if we were to reduce the number of young produced per pair to just six annually, assuming that half are male and half are female, factor a lifespan of five years for all, then we would expect to see an increase of 33,614 birds from the first mated pair during this five-year period. There has; however, been a twist in recent years. Duh, duh, duhhhh…

Despite thriving during the hundred plus years since introduction into the rest of the world, House sparrows have begun declining rapidly in parts of North America, Australia, and their native Europe where they are now red listed as a species of high conservation concern. Across the whole of the United Kingdom and much of Northwestern Europe, sparrow populations have declined by more than 60 percent from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. Some of the reasons cited are loss of nesting habitat, diminished food items i.e., weed seed and insects, pollution caused by industrial growth, and natural predation. The latter, I would argue is a key influence as I have had evidence of predation strewn through my backyard on countless occasions. Although neighborhood cats permitted to run at will has always been a concern when it comes to our native bird species, local hawk populations have skyrocketed in recent years and can now be seen in almost any city/town, at any time of the day, perched prominently on a power line or radio tower, scouting its next meal.

Yes, I will agree that the males will sometimes “flex” too hard and too often when trying to defend their territory. They also sing incessantly during springtime when trying to garner the attention of a mate. I have even felt the hit in the wallet as the little army of sparrows I quickly amass in my yard consumes way more than their fair share of bird seed. Despite all of this, I have grown rather fond of these bold little birds and their willingness to share their social dynamic with me.

Most of us live hectic lives that don’t allocate as much time as we would like to spend outdoors in nature. Given the chance, the House sparrow will provide a front row seat to the natural world that is always present right outside your window. All we have to do is sit back and take it in!

Just Do Something!

"When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver – He could plant a tree. When the axe was invented, he became a taker – He could chop it down. Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants."

-Aldo Leopold

As most of us have started to settle back into some semblance of “normalcy”, we are still within the throes of a worldwide pandemic. Government shut downs and social isolation have spawned record unemployment, political disconnect, civil unrest, and our ever-more-present-with-each-passing-year-friend global warming. When all hope seems lost, we as conservationist and land managers MUST dust off our boots, get back out there, and carry on with the work.

A Time When No Matter How You Choose, You Are Certain to Offend Someone

A reasonable person would assume that when you utilize your own time, money and resources to do something, ANYTHING for the environment, it would be warmly received by all, correct? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is no longer so Chappies and Chappettes! I recently had a conversation with the Senior Project Director of a major organization here in the US. It wasn’t until I had this conversation that I truly understood the gravity of the situation. I had pitched to him an upcoming “statement tee” that I planned to release and offered to include their organization on the campaign. For those of you that are not aware, a statement tee is a t-shirt that carries a bold statement on the front. Its intent is to stand out and deliver a message about something that you support. The campaign required no work or capital from them aside from lending their logo to the design. In return, a portion of all proceeds would be donated to them for their participation. We have done this in the past with other organizations and although our contribution doesn’t amount to anything that would make or break a company, every little bit helps right?

The idea I pitched focused on a certain demographic within their industry. A group of people that have been overlooked so to speak and haven’t received the proper recognition that they deserve. It is also a growing demographic that is performing exciting work for both science and the industry. My idea was met with caution and concern. Although being supportive of the idea on a personal level, he was concerned that if they backed this campaign, they would endure backlash from the other sector of their industry that wasn’t included. Despite not agreeing with his assessment initially, after pondering it for a bit, I couldn’t dispute his concerns seeing as to the current state of the world and the cancel culture that we now reside in.

It’s All Gone to The Birds

The hew of the European ax resulted in grassland bird species expanding their range into the midwestern and eastern states of North America during the late 1800s as forests were cleared for early, agrarian endeavors. Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestris) spread eastward from Illinois and Wisconsin beginning in the 1870s, and had reached the New England states by 1891. Other species that expanded their range eastward included the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) and Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus).

Showing up to the party fashionably late, the Henslow's Sparrow (Centronyx henslowii), also expanded its range; however, its population boom coincided with the period of farm abandonment in the early 1900’s as these same settlers expanded further west. Grassland birds like the Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum), Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna), and Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorous), were likely already present in the Northeast prior to the large-scale forest clearing that had prompted the arrival of the aforementioned species.

From this data, it can be postulated that some forest bird species were without a doubt displaced when the forests were cleared. This displacement resulted in habitation by several new grassland species which after several years of farms being abandoned, were forced to seek refuge elsewhere as early successional species moved into the developing, scrubby habitat. Do you see a pattern?

Choose Wisely or Else!

So, from a conservation perspective, which direction should we go and which species should we target as we reshape and manage our landscapes? It has been suggested that the ideal habitat might be a landscape with scattered, small openings such as those that were created by native peoples. Another target could be 1966, when the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) began the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Data from the BBS could be used to target specific grassland bird populations and implement management practices that cater to the species with the most rapid declines. For example, BBS data for Savannah Sparrows and Eastern Meadowlarks, show consistent, region-wide declines in the Northeast from 1966-1996. Similar trends for other species are the basis for the concern for grassland birds in regions with continued declines. If you support this approach, then you would de-emphasize late-successional forest species, which are already present, and focus your efforts on grassland bird recovery.

A case in point is the Bobolink, which since 1966 is declining at rates approaching 2% every year throughout their entire North American breeding range. In the Northeast, per BBS data, Bobolinks are most abundant in the St. Lawrence River Plain; which supports up to 17% of the world's population of Bobolinks. Even though the St. Lawrence River Plain was dominated by deciduous hardwood forests in pre-Columbian times, cultivation during the last 200 years has created a vast agricultural grassland in which climate and poor drainage have enhanced the value of the region to grassland birds such as the Bobolink and Henslow's Sparrow. In this case, a rational argument could be made for a management target date set in the late twentieth century, with an emphasis on enhancing grassland habitat. That approach is being undertaken by the USFWS in its St. Lawrence Wetlands and Grassland Management District, where the Partners in Wildlife program restores old fields to grassland habitat, which are then maintained in an early successional stage by private landowners.

Embrace What Feels Right to You

Upon purchasing our initial acreage (7+ acres) the land was 65% scrubby, early successional growth with the remaining 35% being fragmented, forested, what I would call “islands”. The southern border to our property (55+ acres) is 75% rolling, hay pasture with the remaining 25% being fragmented, forested islands. To the south of that is 50+ acres of 100% forested habitat. This collective 112+ acres and then some, was initially one parcel that operated as a pastured cattle operation dating back to the 1800’s.

In July 2020, we were able to acquire 11+ acres of the rolling pasture which adjoins to the south end of our property. When considering a long term, management plan, weighing out the recent data trends, we embraced a grassland habitat restoration. In doing so, we are certain to displace some of the resident, early successional species but these same birds have more of that habitat nearby within agricultural and residential land. The smaller islands of forested habitat will require selective cuts to open up the tree canopy to create a non-interrupted plot to make it more appealing for grassland birds. In doing this, we will also displace some resident forest dwelling birds but these birds have larger spans of forest to choose from within the bordering acreage.

In conclusion, I am of the firm belief that doing something is better than doing nothing. I also believe that over analysis often leads to paralysis which leads to nothing getting done. Pick a plan, conduct your research, implement said plan and carry out the work that achieves the ideal habitat that YOU desire, and brings the most value to YOUR life.