I'm reposting and updating this from last year, for the top of the gardening season for most folks.

Our good friend MadSat, is still in Iraq, and still safe, and thankfully, he still has access to blogs.

MadSat is a rather remarkable beekeeper and bee remover (among a host of other amazing skills and talents). He sent along a great recipe to encourage and feed bees in a very healthful way.

It was so good ( posted my experiences with it last year), I want to share it here, with better measurements from MadSat:

To a bit more than half a quart of hot water, add 1/8 tsp of lecithin. Add seven drops of oil of lemongrass, seven drops of oil of spearmint and fill with sugar. Shake until all the sugar is dissolved. The lecithin emulisifes the oils, so they spread evenly.

I generally do the lecithin first while the water is really hot. It's hard to get that stuff to dissolve, so I put it in, shake it up, let it sit for a few minutes and then do it again. Then I put in the sugar, and it's really a half and half sugar and water mixture by volume, but it actually comes out pretty thin. So if you used two cups of hot water, then add two cups of sugar. That cools it down, because OFC, the sugar isn't hot. Then I add the oils, shake it up again, and it's bee ready. I dosed mine in February and the hives are busting full of bees.

Spray over whatever, the bees will come. Or pour a couple quarts into a shallow pan, then add some sticks or bricks so they don't drown trying to drink it. That stuff is bee medicine, it's good for them, the oils apparently kill some of the viruses that are responsible for the vanishing colonies.

Now, a trick you may or may not ever want to try, a bit of that solution, or with just the lemongrass oil, leaving off the sugar, and bees become very mild. Spraying them with it when taking them out of a house calms them greatly, and has been a big help to me along with smoking them. Especially since you can't use gloves while doing that job, you have to do it barehanded for some pretty good reasons. They don't want to fly with wet wings, and they do love that smell, and it masks the smell of the intruder.

Incidentally, this isn't somebody's old home remedy for bees, it's based on work done at the University of West Virginia. If you think about it all, it makes a ton of sense, plants have a definite interest in keeping bees healthy, so of course they'll create nectars good for the bees health over time! Or, if you prefer, plants that help bees survive have a definite advantage over plants that don't. And bees that like taking their medicine will have a definite advantage over bees that don't.

Spraying a bit of it about the garden will attract bees for sure, but it would also attract ants or so I'd think, unless you left off the sugar. The bees surely love the stuff. It is sold under the trade name of "Honey B Healthy", but it is exactly the same thing I'm telling you how to make here, a good deal cheaper too!

See here, and here.

MadSat | 04.28.09 - 4:04 pm

Thanks again, buddy! STAY SAFE!

Good luck in getting bees to your gardens this year, folks! The Licithin and Oils can all be found at here, for very cheap, great products. Good company to do business with.