The Boys are Back

In a northern location like Seattle I find that the long summer days sneak up pretty quickly.  Sometime in June I'll be working in the yard and get caught off guard that it's already 10PM, and it's still light out!  Beekeeping has a similar parallel for me as I check on them throughout winter to make sure the cluster has food hoping they will survive, and then in a blink they are making plans to swarm.

During my last inspection over the weekend I saw drones in my strong hives.  Drones are a sign that the hive is on a stable buildup cycle and can invest extra resources beyond just making workers.  However with the waves of sun/rain we've been getting, the hives can't take advantage of the nectar sources available and brood combs are currently looking light.  I consider a comb light when I don't see a 2-3" band of honey/nectar and another 1" band of pollen along the top.

I do hear about March swarms every year and yes that could happen this year if the sun were to come out for a few days.  A few hives get lured into early swarming by the surge in blooms and lack of early spring management to open up the broodnest.  Based on what I've been seeing I have started doing swarm management inspections every 7-10 days to stay ahead of them.  As long as the weather keeps up this pattern I'm not too worried, but if we get more than 3 days of sunshine in a row everything can change.

The plums were in bloom a couple weeks ago, and are mostly done now.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis).  This is one of my favorite bee friendly herbs with flower colors varying from white, blue, pink and purple.  Around here they usually have a robust bloom coming out of winter lasting into spring, but they also tend to bloom whenever they want any month of the year.  On a spring day in the sunshine these bushes will be covered in bees working them for pollen.  I've observed the flowers leaving a white/pale pollen mark along the thorax of workers which isn't quickly cleaned off and can be found during inspections. These evergreens are usually hardy enough to survive our winters, but can be damaged by deep freezes or extended winter storms over time.  Plant in a well drained sunny spot and they will thrive.  They also respond well to hedging and can be easily propagated from cuttings.

Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) is in bloom and tends to be more popular with bumble bees than honey bees.

Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica) is one of those wonderful blue pollen plants that will have you wanting to plant fields of them after you see the bees with blue pollen baskets.

Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum) is an early nectar source.

Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) is actually more pink and is very appealing to humming birds.

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) is in bloom and a nectar source.

Quince is in bloom and a good pollen source.

Nice patch of brood in Rosemary hive.

Look at all the young fuzzy bees and drones in the Rosemary hive!

Pollen and nectar coming into the hive.

A drone warming up in the sun.  Some of them are mature enough to fly.

This is the Dyno hive queen.  They are still pretty small.

Emerging brood in Quickdraw.

Another patch of brood in Quickdraw.  It's hard to tell why it's spotty, but I suspect it's normal early spring buildup and will correct itself.

They were carrying a few dead bees out like this.  I couldn't tell when/why they died, but suspect they might have got left behind when the cluster condensed last fall.

The Quickdraw queen.  This hive has a lot of diversity in bees and it's nice to see that they like their queen.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff

A Seasonal Malfunction

Last year spring was a little early.  This year we seemed to have missed the end of winter all together and are now experiencing spring conditions.  Not only are the usual late winter flowers in bloom but we also have a slew of things that are blooming a month or more early.  There are blooms everywhere and food is plentiful if the hives can get to it.  Daytime temps are in the 50s with nighttime temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s which is the only thing holding back an explosive hive buildup.

As for whether this warm weather is a good or bad thing for the bees is hard to say.  On the plus size they are building up faster.  On the down side we could end up having a longer and drier summer than last year.  I also worry that warm weather will allow for predators to get an earlier start as well and having already seen a few yellow jackets around that's not a good thing.  There is also a real concern that we will get a storm that will cutoff the hives food supply for a few days.  Hives are using about a 100% of what they are bringing in to raise brood and don't keep much of a reserve for bad weather.

Rosemary is always attracting the girls.

Euphorbia characias 'Wulfenii' is a another food source.

 Magnolia stellata 'Royal Star' are just coming into bloom.

Plums are in full bloom right now and a good food source.

 Oxalis Oregana is in bloom right now.

Cornelian cherry is already in bloom.

Here's a picture of both Hazelnut catkins and blooms (tiny purple flower) that are open right now.

 Daphne x transatlantica 'Eternal Fragrance' is in bloom.

 Most Magnolia trees are usually further behind the Star Magnolia, but this year they are almost ready to pop.

Crocus blooms appearing at the end of winter are a sign that spring is on the way and are an excellent pollen food source.  They are easy to grow and like well drained soils that get a good amount of sunlight.  If you are relaxed about your lawn care, Crocus can even be naturalized into yards for a splash of early spring color.  Crocus come in a variety of colors and they bloom from fall to spring.  If you are a fan of saffron, it is made from the dried stigmas of the fall blooming Crocus sativus.  Unlike bulb flowers the Crocus corms gets completely absorbed into the flower and leaves during the bloom cycle and then will make new corms as the plant goes dormant again, so be careful not to destroy the plant during the growing cycle.

Evergreen clematis is in bloom.

Spring Hebe are coming into bloom.

Daffodil are in bloom.

Lonicera fragrantissima is in bloom.  It didn't even loose it's leaves this year.

Oregon Grape is starting to bloom.

Scilla siberica is coming up with it's elusive blue pollen.

Red maples are in bloom.

Indian Plum is usually one of our earliest blooming natives.

Quince are in bloom.

Hive checks (2/8/2015)

It was supposed to be raining today, but we had a "bright sky" break this morning (I'd say sun break, but there was a high layer of clouds filtering it) and temps were around 55F.

Rose
I saw some eggs in the center of cells, but I suspect this is the work of a laying worker at this point.  No signs of a queen present.

Rosemary daughter
There are several frames of bees and I did not see the queen or signs of the queen.

Ballard daughter

I saw some drones flying from this hive.  The broodnest is now covering 10 frames.  I wanted to take a peak at this hive to see if anything had happened with that supersedure cell I saw last inspection and I was pleasantly surprised to see it not capped.  Taking a close look it also appeared to be empty this time.  I did notice some work on queen cups around the frames, but I'm not seeing any white comb or a nectar excess yet.  However with the way this season is going we could have an early maple flow in March and they may try to use that window to swarm so I will need to keep an eye on things.

The queen looks good and has a nice following of nurse bees.

Brood nest.

New bees are emerging.

Hive checks (2/9/2015)

Ballard Nuc & Rosemary daughter

Combined these hives together.  The Ballard queen had a small patch of brood, which should be very appealing to the queenless Rosemary hive.  I'm not too worried about this combine as this is a fairly common way to get a queenless hive (without laying workers) queen right again.

Small brood nest.

Hive checks (2/10/2015)
Solis & Rose Nuc
Combined these hives together.  The Solis hive had a small patch of brood which was good to see.  There weren't many bees in the Rose Nuc, but their addition doubles the population of the Solis hive.  Having been queenless they should take to the new queen since laying workers hadn't started up yet.

Another small brood nest.

Hive checks (2/16/2015)
Dyno
Quick peak at entrance activity and saw a few foragers coming back with pollen.  Can't say much more without looking inside, but based on my previous observations they have a long road ahead to rebuild their numbers.

Hive checks (2/21/2015)
Rosemary-Ballard Hive
The queen looked good and the broodnest was larger.  I moved several frames of honey from the back of the hive forward because the front frames were empty and they looked like they needed more food close by.

The broodnest has grown, but stores are looking low.

The queen looks good.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff

Spring Flowers Arrive in Abundance

Hello spring and here we are mid-April and I have more flowers to photograph than I have time for.  Stuff is blooming everywhere and it's sunny, cloudy, rainy and stormy sometimes all at the same time!  So far all four hives are still alive and I think I owe part of that to mother nature being kind and not throwing any late winter storms at us.  In fact the mild weather had maples in full bloom about 8 days ago blooming right along with the cherries.  That's a couple weeks before I usually see them hitting their peak.  I don't think the bees were able to do much with them because we had almost daily rain with sun breaks and from what I've been told you need several days of sunshine in a row to get good nectar production from maples.

Collecting pollen from these tiny Myosotis Sylvatica

This was Sunday afternoon for about 15 minutes then sunshine for an hour and then downpour rain.

Pussy Willow blooms - I took this a couple weeks ago by the water.

Chocolate lilies are about to open.

Quince

Stachyurus praecox

Mallow are great for attracting all kinds of pollinators and grow like weeds.

Cherry tree sap.  I've often wondered what the bees would do if I just left a gob of this by their entrance.  The bees are usually all over the cherry trees collecting propolis.

Lawn Daisy

Muscari armeniacum

Star Magnolia

Gooseberry

Euphorbia characias with a ladybug looking for aphids.

Platanus × acerifolia, London plan flower bud

Hive Checks (4/14/2013)

Rebels
Took a quick peak to see if were still alive and the good news is that they are still kicking and perhaps even starting to build up.  Added a jar of syrup to see if that helps them along any.

Girls collecting water.

Icon Daughter Nuc
They seem to be doing good and have a lot of drones on the way. They might be getting cramped for space so pulled one of three reserve bars of honey in the back so I could put a frame of brood comb up near the entrance.  They were also storing fresh nectar so I think they are going to be good for food without that bar. I saw another sick bee with deformed wing on this inspection so hopefully they can build up quickly enough to outpace the issues.

My what big eyes you have... sadly there is a varroa on this guys neck.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff