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DIY Wildlife Habitats

by Ana Morlier

Happy April, readers! A lovely month of spring flowers, planting, and, hopefully, more time outside. With all of these advantages, it’s time to give back to the Earth during the renewal of spring, to do your due diligence on Earth Day.

Let’s make strides to undo the urban human destruction that destroys local habitats. Let’s create a safe haven for all animals. Here are a few tips and tricks to make your yard more wildlife-friendly! And, remember, any new plants you use should be native to Maryland.

Natural Food Options for Animals (small wildlife)

Nectar (hummingbird feeder, native flowers).

Pollen (native flowers, butterfly weed, ironweed, false blue indigo, etc.).

Foliage such as ferns (groundcover, lady, Christmas), wool rush/grass, black chokeberry, fothergilla, oakleaf hydrangea, and sweet pepperbush.

Old or rotting trees (which can provide lichen, moss, and fungi for all sorts of animals and insects).

Bugs are actually quite important for birds, acting as an important food source. For example, hummingbirds love nectar, but also graze on mosquitoes, gnats, and even spiders for protein.

Add food sources. If you’re okay with having larger animals in your yard, add food sources such as berries, nuts, and seeds. These might include black-eyed susans, black chokeberry, lowbush blueberry, inkberry holly, winterberry holly, and red chokeberry. In addition, acorns, pinecones (for birds), and seedy flowers.

Animal Upkeep

A birdbath. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy! It can be a flowerpot, formal birdbath, or even an old cake pan (that has depth). Make sure you have a plate or pan to catch water under the bath.

A water source for bees and butterflies. Something as simple as filling a bowl (plastic, ceramic, etc.) with pebbles and a small amount of water so they can perch on the pebbles to drink. Honey bees especially love salt water. Bees in general will be more attracted to the source if it has an earthy scent like moss, wet earth, salt, and even sugar. They are also attracted to the scent of chlorine, thus why you’ll see so many floating bees in the pool. You can use chlorine beside the water source to attract more bees, if desired. After the bees get used to the location you’ve set the watering station you won’t have to keep adding extra scent. Coming to the watering station will become a habit for bees.

Make a toad abode. All you’ll need is a small entrance in a flower or terra-cotta pot (flipped upside down for cover) for the toad to get into. Even a carved-out tree stump works. Make sure there is some gravel, mulch, or plant life around the abode.

Once again, provide shelter. Tall grasses (wool grass, little bluestem, yellow Indian grass), shrubs (listed above), and trees (can be dead) are best for shelter and hiding.

Other Tips

Allow weeds to grow, as it also offers groundcover.

Resist the urge to use insecticide! If you absolutely need to, make sure the insecticide is a natural substance, such as neem oil, vegetable oil, or vinegar.

Hold off on deadheading if the flower stalk has lots of seeds. Wait until birds or other critters have taken as much as they need, then deadhead.

If you have pets, try attracting pollinators with flowers only for a safer environment (without the risk of encountering other animals).

Always try to plant perennials if you can for year-round sustainability.

If you have the time, plan out the bloom time of plants so you have flowers, berries or nuts at various times of the year.

May this be a helpful guide to starting out making a natural habitat.

The best resource for the layout and plants in your garden is the National Wildlife Federation. The website has a plethora of resources and information for any setting, such as school, work, and animal-specific habitats.

Thank you for giving back to the Earth during the renewal of spring, and best of luck!

Photo Courtesy of Rusty Burlew of Backyard Beekeeping

Credit to: University of Maryland Extension, Rusty Burlew of Backyard Beekeeping, Monica Russo of Audubon, and the National Wildlife Federation.

James Rada, Jr.

Winged bee slowly flies to beekeeper collect nectar on private apiary from live flowers, apiary consisting of village beekeeper, floret dust on bee legs, beekeeper for bees on background large apiary

As the weather warms up, you might start to hear a buzzing as bees emerge from their hives to seek out pollen to create honey. They have spent the winter in their hives, clustered together, using their body heat to maintain warmth. With the outflow of bees, you might also notice people who look like they’re wearing radiation suits.

Dan Harbaugh of Emmitsburg maintains 35 beehives. He decided to learn about beekeeping after he retired because he wanted a new challenge. He took a class in Westminster offered by the Carroll County Beekeepers Association. He now sells his raw honey (meaning it is strained but not heat treated) at the Harbaugh Farm Greenhouse and Produce in Sabillasville.

Beekeepers will often sell additional products, such as beeswax, propolis, pollen, and even bees and hives.

Beekeeping has roots that go back to ancient Egypt. Workers keeping bees can be seen on the walls of ancient Egyptian temples. They knew what modern beekeepers know. Not only can bees be a source of honey and wax, but having them around improves the pollination of plants and flowers nearby.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables. About one mouthful in three in the diet directly or indirectly benefits from honeybee pollination.”

“Honeybees are critical to our food chain, and I respect them deeply,” said Kelly Frye-Valerio of Emmitsburg.

While beekeeping is not expensive, there are set-up expenses beekeepers usually buy. These include hive supplies, an extractor, a smoker, and protective clothing. These add up to a few hundred dollars to get started, but it may be nearly all of your costs for years except for the cost of bottling the honey.

These initial costs are unlikely to be covered in the first year you have a hive because it takes time to get a healthy hive established. Once a bee hive is established, it doesn’t take much to care for them. Keep the hives in the sun and near a source of food. Once a week or so, beekeepers will check the hives to make sure there is enough room for the bees.

You don’t need a large area to keep a hive. Frye-Valerio lives in a subdivision.

“My husband and I are looking to transition in to more of a self-sustaining lifestyle,” she said. “Until we are able to find the right property, we are starting with what we can do right now on our quarter of an acre in a subdivision.”  They maintain four hives on their property.

Bees range for up to two miles in their search for pollen. They will collect pollen from whatever plants are in the area. The honey is usually identified by the plants the pollen is collected from, such as clover honey or orange blossom honey. Harbaugh calls the honey he collects wildflower honey because there are no identifiable flowers dominating the area where his bees collect their pollen to make honey.

The hives that beekeepers raise are actually boxes that are stacked on each other. The boxes are about 18 inches square and 6 inches high. Each box is open on the top and bottom to allow the bees to move from box to box. Within each box hangs a series of frames on which the bees can build their honeycombs. As the frames in one box fill up with comb and honey, additional boxes are stacked on top.

There are a few ways that beekeepers can start a hive.

They can buy bees and a queen and place them in a hive. They can capture a bee swarm, or as is often the case, they remove a hive from a house.

Beekeepers will also examine the bees in their hives for signs of disease on a regular basis. The big concern is the Varroa Mite, which needs to be kept under control to keep the hive healthy.

Beekeepers are also helping the world. Mites, parasites, and pesticides have reduced the bee population worldwide. They are needed, however, because they pollinate plants and allow things to grow. In the winter, bees weakened by a mite infestation may die, and if there aren’t enough bees to maintain the colony, it will collapse.

“The beekeeper needs to prepare, protect, or manipulate the hives to prevent these problems,” Harbaugh explained.

When the time comes to bottle honey, the frames from the hive are placed in an extractor, which is similar to a large centrifuge and spun. Honey is pulled out of the comb and falls to bottom of extractor, where it drains out a spigot into a bucket.

The result is a tasty treat that many people think has more flavor.

DID YOU KNOW? Here are 15 facts about bees you probably didn’t know.

        There are 20,000 bee species, worldwide.

        Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica.

        Honeybees have hairy eyes.

        Honeybees have five eyes: two large compound eyes with hexagonal facets and three   small simple eyes.

        The honeybee brain is sophisticated even though it is only the size of a grain of sugar.

        Some bee species, including honey bees, may have descended from wasps.

        All bees in a hive are aware of the presence of their queen bee. If she leaves, the entire colony knows within 15 minutes.

        Scent is very important to bees, and they are best at learning  new smells in the mornings.

        Bees cannot see the color red, but they can see the ultraviolet patterns in flowers, so they do visit red flowers.

Female bees can sting, but male bees cannot sting.

Bees have been trained as   bomb detectors and can detect hidden landmines.

Honeybees can be trained to detect illness in the human body.

Honeybees keep the inside temperature of their hives at    93° Fahrenheit.

Bees vibrate their bodies to create body heat to warm up the hive to 93°F if it is cold outside. Bees flap their wings like fans to create a breeze to cool the hive off to 93°F when it is hot outside.

Worker bees do the “waggle dance” to alert their hive sisters about where to find great new sources of water and nectar.