When making your holiday gift list this season, we wanted to remind you not to forget about an important part of your family: your bees! As we approach the long, cold days of winter, it’s time to start thinking about treatments that will help get your bees through to spring. A few products that we like to treat our bees with include the following:

1. Super DFM Honey Bee Probiotics – a specially formulated powder that can be mixed with sugar syrup to help restore the natural bacteria balance in the gut of your honey bees.  These microflorae are essential for breaking down food and for the absorption of nutrients. It is recommended to apply Super DFM 2 to 3 times per year including in the fall to develop winter bees and to resist problems from the long winter confinement, in the spring to restore and recover probiotics after winter confinement and during the beekeeping season to continue to restore bees after exposure to harmful stresses.

2. Honey Bee Healthy – a feeding stimulant made from 100% pure essential oils. It helps promote healthy vigorous hives when used as a feeding supplement in late winter, early spring or when there is a dearth of nectar.

3. Bee Pro Plus Patties – a high protein pollen substitute that provides the proteins, lipids, minerals, carbohydrates and B-complex vitamins that honeybees need to produce food for larvae. It is recommended to use pollen patties in late winter or early spring to prepare for the pollination season.

Another great way to show your bees you care this holiday season is to make a donation to SAVE the BEE®.  SAVE the BEE supports the research of Dr. Ramesh Sagili and his team at Oregon State University’s Honey Bee Lab. Their research focuses on honey bee health, nutrition, and pollination with a goal of serving commercial beekeepers, backyard beekeepers, producers and all citizens that are interested in bees.