What smell would you bring to mind, if I asked you what the end of summer smells like? As we approach apple season, I can imagine you saying “warm apple pie”. Or if state fairs were a part of your growing up, “cotton candy”, or “hot funnel cake”. Or if canning is a family tradition, maybe “pickling brine” or “warm tomatoes”. There are so many smells that can be associated with late summer or early fall. But ever since I became a beekeeper, the smell that speaks to me of the end of summer is the smell of the beehives when the goldenrods are flowering. Toward the end of August in southeastern Michigan, goldenrod starts to bloom, followed soon after by asters in September. They are the last major source of nectar and pollen that the bees will harvest before winter. And during the time that the bees are working them, the hives take on a distinct smell. My husband, who doesn’t find it unpleasant, says it smells like “buttered popcorn”. To that, my response is “Only if it is rancid butter!” It is a smell that is like nothing else I know, but I definitely don’t like it. Looking for other descriptions online I found: stinky feet, dirty gym socks, yeast, cheese, musty, rank and somewhat sickening, and a disagreeable sour smell.
As beekeepers in training we learn about a very serious disease of young bees known as American Foul Brood, which gets its name from a bad smell in the hive from the diseased brood (baby bees). It is something we all hope to never see in our hives as it is a reportable disease and bees in infected hives are generally euthanized and then the whole hive burned. As a result, the first year I kept bees, the goldenrod smell caused me to panic. Fortunately, I was quickly reassured by more experienced beekeepers (who hear from terrified “newbees” every year around this time) that this particular foul smell was from the goldenrods and asters the bees were harvesting, and not a deadly bee disease. For me, over the years that odor has come to mark the end of my honey season, and the time I move on to assessing how the bees have done preparing for winter, and determine which hives might need a little extra help getting ready.
The goldenrods just started to flower last week, so today, as I walked through the apiary, I got my first whiff of the end of summer. And what a summer it has been. It feels like just a short while ago that I was starting my spring hive inspections and getting ready to make splits, so it is hard to believe that last week I did my very last honey harvest of the year. Over the course of the spring and summer, I made more that 20 new hives by splitting my original 20 hives, and also caught 7 swarms. More than half of those new bee colonies have gone to other beekeepers, as I did not want to grow quite that much. I also expanded my beekeeping footprint just past the west end of Marshall Rd, with a few neighbors who were eager to host hives. A side bonus of that has been making some amazing new friends. In addition, I was able to do 5 honey harvests this year, yielding more honey than I have ever collected before. As a result I am now participating in 5 farm markets (and am looking for other places to sell honey as well, so let me know if you are in the area and have a store that would be willing to stock some of my honey). And most importantly, many of my hives appear to be well on their way to having the stores they need for winter, and those that are lagging have time to catch up, with a little help from me as needed. So, all in all my bees are having a great year, and I have loved sharing it with them, helping when I can, and taking advantage of their productivity, both at making more bees, and at making honey. For the next two months, as bee season winds down, I will work to help the bees get settled for the winter. After that, all I will be able to do is wait to see what next spring will bring.
