It was a nice Spring day with temperatures up in the mid 50s. The weekend was just awful with several inches of rain and wind, but today was near perfect for this time of year. I got home around 5:30pm, but due to Daylights Savings time, it was still bright and sunny.
The bees in both hives were happy and active. I didn’t open the hive to check on the top feeder, but I did notice that both hives had workers returning with baskets full of yellow pollen. I don’t know what they found in March 16th. The forsythia have not come close to blooming and the only flowers that I know of would be Snowdrops, Crocuses and some early Daffodils. I don’t think that these would be all that plentiful, though. The only thing I can think of would be Skunk Cabbage and perhaps there is a tree that is blooming early from all the rain and warm weather. I think that perhaps the large silver maple is starting to bloom, at least the buds that I saw are large and ready to go. I think at the top of the trees there may be some blooms.
That the bees are returning with lots of pollen this early in the season is a wonderful sign. Tomorrow I will give them more syrup.
One thing, though, is that there is bound to be more bad, cold and wet weather. Spring is like that.
This is a wonderful surprise. I thought that the Martha hive was doomed, and now she is active and growing. I will be getting my next two hives, soon and I hope that this year I will get a good crop of honey.
One thing, though, my brother wants to raise bees, too. After I started, he began to read up on it. He wants me to split a hive for him this summer so he can get started. I was going to split the hive, but I was going to sell it and make back some of my investment. I may be able to make more than one split. We’ll see. I think it would be better if he bought a package up near where he lives.
I am stuck in the usual Spring wood backlog. I ordered new supers and deeps, enough to make my fifth hive if I split. Everything is back-ordered. I have enough to handle the two packages that I ordered, but I want to be prepared.
