Spring Is Here, Six In, Six Out.

[jdmidwest]

But some are a little worse for the wear. I have wintered 6 hives of bees with minimal intervention. This time last year, I had one hive and 2 on the way. I was able to build and split and make 6 sucessful colonies to make it thru the winter, a rather cold one at that.

I went thru my hives the past 2 days. The 2 at the farm survived the winter on minimal stores of honey and are building up fine for the spring flows.

One of the 4 hives at the house lost the queen this spring. She may have just run out of eggs or died of old age. I know she was at least 2 seasons old. It was the original hive that struggled from day one that I started with it. I put a frame of fresh eggs today from another hive and they should start making a new queen soon. They came from a good strong hive, so that one will have the same genetics and traits by a few months from now.

2 of the other hives were in great shape and all I had to do was inspect and do some house keeping.

The last hive was a surprise. They clustered this winter in the lower box and have been busy drawing out fresh comb and honey in the top box. I had 2 frames of fresh white capped honey today in that hive. We just had a inch of snow Sunday and not much blooming, everything dead and brown. But they must have worked on the maples and made the honey from them.

Hopefully by the end of May I can make more splits and maybe get a little honey to boot. My goal is 12 hives by the end of this year.

[duckydoty]

Sounds like things are going good. Hope you reach your goal.

[jdmidwest]

Now if this goofy weather will just straighten out.

[jdmidwest]

Queen has hatched out and mated. Bees were bringing in pollen for the first time today on the queenless hive. That is a sure sign they are feeding newborn bees. The worker bees were kicked into high gear, another sure sign that there is a new queen in there giving them direction.

Bradford pears bloomed out and they are working them good. Lots of activity in the bee hives today and in the pear trees. We have a line of them along the lane to the subdivision so they should have a feast for a week or so. And the neighbors like to grow plenty of dandelions, they will be hitting them too.

[Gavin]

Wont be long before your are picking Morels.

[jdmidwest]

I went out Monday to a few spots, nothing yet. Mayapples and other spring flowers just starting to show. With the temps today, I will be looking this weekend.

I beat the curve this winter with my bees, others are reporting losses of 25 percent or more in their hives. It was a cold winter with several warm days that made them break cluster and get out and waste energy.