Honeytree Nursery

06/01/2025

Did you know that improperly trimming oak trees after storm damage could lead to the spread of a deadly tree disease?
Over the last week or so I see homeowners and even tree care companies removing damaged limbs after the recent storms without taking proper precautions. Oak wilt is a serious fungal infection that can devastate oak trees.
Trimming during warm weather exposes fresh wounds that attract beetles carrying the oak wilt fungus. These tiny insects (picnic beetles) are drawn to sap from the wounds and can spread the disease quickly between trees. They can be on a fresh wound within minutes! They may or may not have the fungus on their dirty little feet and if they do, it will kill that tree and then all other oak trees within a 100 ft radius or more through root grafts. Oaks use their interconnected roots to “talk” to each other and to share nutrients. The Oak Wilt fungus takes advantage of these grafts and grows into other trees and then continues to spread underground like spokes of a wheel. An entire forest can die.
- **Seal pruning cuts immediately**: Use tree wound paint or latex paint to cover any fresh cuts and protect the tree from infection. “Saw in one hand; paint in the other!”
- **Hire a certified arborist**: Professional tree care ensures proper techniques are used to safeguard your trees. And a note to anyone who trims oaks for hire without proper prevention techniques – you are liable for that tree and the neighboring trees that die.
Symptoms will show up in July and August. Leaves on the tree, or portions of it, will wilt. If that happens, get confirmation of the disease through a lab and get the advice of an Oak Wilt Qualified Arborist for the next steps.

04/07/2023

This is the article I was referring in my previous post

04/07/2023

Every Spring we see this, or a similar post from well-meaning people. It features a picture of a dead honey bee with it's tongue hanging out, claiming the bee was killed by someone spraying dandelions.

I understand the point of the post is to be careful with pesticides, as millions of bees are killed by well-meaning homeowners spraying with herbicides and fungicides, as well as insecticides. But the post also gives some inaccurate information that should be addressed.

First, there is the claim that dandelions are the bees first food. That is not true. Research shows the top 5 Spring honey plants are Maples, Willows, Fruit Trees, Brambles, and Sumac.

Dandelions don't even make the list, although there are areas they may be significant. Today, April 7, the following TREES are in full bloom: Silver Maple, Red Maple, Alder, Elms, and Poplars. They are also working Spring bulbs, skunk cabbage, and ornamental Cornelian Cherry trees.

For the last month, honey bees, (and native bees), have been gathering pollen and nectar from trees any day the weather allowed. In a few days the willows will be in bloom.

Dandelions won't be blooming in significant quantities for several weeks yet. Trees bloom 4-6 WEEKS before dandelions.

To say "w**ds, flowers, and fruit trees are the only source of food until middle of June" is simply not true. If you want to help bees and other pollinators, provide forage by planting a tree! Trees are "meadows in the sky"!

09/19/2022

09/19/2022

Photos from this week

09/19/2022

Several people have asked what the pollinators are working now. Besides the obvious goldenrods ( a BIG flow this year), there are a lot of minor plants chugging away feeding our bees and butterflies. In the wetlands it’s water lilies, invasive purple loosestrife, tickseed, and iron w**d. Upland it’s chickory (surprised?) the invasive Japanese Knotw**d and asters. Landscape areas are hydrangeas, sedums, Bluebeard Caryopteris, anise hyssop, and a new Star you may not have heard of, the Seven Sons Tree. Check the video on this beautiful plant. I grow the caryopteris and the seven sons, but when I’m out, I’m done. Shipping season starts about October 1, depending upon the weather.

04/19/2022

Spring 2022 is cold, and really wet! How does that affect local pollinators? What is happening with the flowering trees?
On the positive side, a wet cold spring is good for plants. Plants are waking up slowly, without a sudden shock where an early spring causes plants to bloom early, only to be frozen later when “normal” weather returns!
What of the bees and other pollinators? If you are a native bee or pollinator a late Spring does not affect you much. You will stay in the ground or in your winter quarters a few extra weeks, in a state of torpor until enough heat accumulates to trigger your internal alarm clock.
Honey bees are in a different situation, however. They are active all year round, and in fact the queen started laying eggs in January which required the colony to step up their metabolism to increase hive temperatures to above 90 degrees. Those elevated temperatures require energy in the form of saved honey. Baby bees that hatch from eggs also require food, specifically a product called bee bread – a fermented mixture of pollen and nectar.
Honey Bee colonies require a large amount of food this time of year. If they are unable to gather it from the millions of flowers that are in bloom right now, such as the maples, and the willows, they can starve to death, and undoubtably many colonies have died in the last few weeks if their owners did not provide supplemental pollen substitutes and sugar. Winter losses will be high this year.
What is in bloom right now? Red and Silver maples, along with p***y willows, are providing the bulk of the available food. Of course, the daffodils , crocus, Easter roses and other small flowers are pretty and get us excited about Spring, but they are insignificant to large colonies of bees because they don’t provide enough resources. Only Meadows in the Sky - TREES - can do that this time of year.
The weather will eventually warm, and bees will feed on the abundant resources soon. Hang in there bees!

01/08/2022

Are you interested in keeping bees? There is an upsurge in home gardening, allegedly because people have been working at home, staring out the window because of Covid. Many think, “Hey, why not grow vegetables in that vacant space in my lawn”?

But many of those vegetables need insect pollination to produce a crop, so now we are seeing an upsurge in the number of people who want their own beehive too! And why not? Besides the obvious benefit of a well-pollinated garden, you can collect all the honey you’ll need for you and your friends, make your own mead (honey wine), harvest beeswax, make creams and ointments, and have fun!

Beekeeping is a disease, and it’s highly infectious. Once you get the bug, you’ll discover the “cure” is more and more!

Unfortunately, most -the vast majority- of new beekeepers are not successful. There is a steep learning curve, and because of changes in Pests, Pesticides, and Forage, keeping bees is much more complicated than it was for your grandparents. Educate yourself first! If you don’t educate yourself, you will fail.

The best education is from a personal mentor, who takes you to their beehives to help, and then drags you back out because you don’t want to leave. Mentors are rare, however.

Next best is getting involved in a local bee club. They are everywhere and in almost every part of the country. Beekeepers are the friendliest, most helpful bunch of people you will ever run into. Many clubs are free to attend or charge a nominal fee to meet expenses. You’ll bee exposed to many management points of view so you can adopt your own. Hint: adopt the point of view of a successful beekeeper, not a theoretical one that sounds good, but doesn’t have a successful track record.

Several years ago, I started the Grand Rapids Area Bee Club with my friends Mark and Ryan Stewart. Covid has restricted meetings, but we are meeting in person again. (grbee.club, Facebook Grand Rapids Area Beekeeping Club)

The Kalamazoo Club is sponsoring their awesome, annual bee school again February 12. It’s a virtual meeting, but features Tom Seely from Cornell University (his book, Honeybee Democracy is a classic). See KalamazooBeeClub.com

Michigan Beekeepers Association will have a live meeting March 12th at Kellogg Center in Lansing. The featured speakers are Paul Kelley from Ontario, and Dewey Caron, co-author of the best textbook on honey bees, Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping (Wicwas Press).

Finally, If you are a veteran, or a veteran’s spouse or child, there is a fantastic program available through MSU Extension called Heroes To Hives. It’s world class, and it’s free!

Or simply Google “beekeeping clubs in my area”. Winter is a great time to start.

Kalamazoo Bee Club. Educating people about beekeeping, supporting beekeepers, and providing bee-related services to the greater Kalamazoo area community. If you would like to actively participate in the administration of the Kalamazoo Bee Club, please contact us as we are looking to expand our Board...

10/06/2021

FIXED URL - Fall Shipping Now Available. https://honeytreenursery.com/
We Ship Nationwide with guaranteed $12 flat rate shipping per tree (2 tree min) to Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.
All other states, please email [email protected] for a shipping quote. We promise to get you the best possible rate.

10/05/2021

Fall Shipping Now Available. https://honeytreenursery.com/

We Ship Nationwide with guaranteed $12 flat rate shipping per tree (2 tree min) to Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

All other states, please email [email protected] for a shipping quote. We promise to get you the best possible rate.

07/29/2021

A video of butterflies on dogbane in Montana.

07/29/2021

Mid-July I had the opportunity to visit a brother in Montana. He has a cabin in a mountain range south of Great Falls called the Little Belts. It’s a very pretty area but devastated by Mountain pine beetle, which has killed 50-75% of all the trees. They are standing dead and dry, tinder waiting for a spark.

On the way to the mountains we traveled back roads. Commercial beekeepers drop off groups of about 48 hives every mile or two to take advantage of spotted knapw**d, alfalfa, and wildflowers growing in the area. These are bees that started working in February, pollinating almonds in California and then moved into Washington for fruit pollination. After several working stops they end up in Montana or the Dakotas, or even the Midwest to catch a honey crop. It’s a hard life for the bees and the beekeepers!

Yet in the mountains there are no honeybees. There are a lot of wildflowers but no honeybees to pollinate them. So what’s doing the job? Native bees. Specialist bees. Bumblebees. And butterflies by the millions! Especially the Fritillary butterflies whose caterpillars feed on violets in the spring but whose adults feed on most every mountain flower in the summer, performing an important role as pollinator in this ecosystem.