Spring Is Early

Officially spring is still a couple weeks away, but things don't appear to care what the calendar tells us.  It's been warm the last few weeks with daily temps getting above 50F+ and also very wet!  There is a ton of stuff blooming, but getting out there between rainstorms is making it hard to get good photos.  Plums came into full bloom this week which is the first big tree and the bees are definitely noticing. 

I was lucky enough to get a few hours of sunshine this morning and was able to check all the hives.  Some are weak and have tiny patches of brood, but two stand out in particular and will be my breeder queens this year.  Unlike previous years I plan to replace all the queens of week hives this year rather than try and keep them going and waiting to see how long they will last before mother nature kills them.  Often these weak hives will build up and look great by the blackberry flow and it's easy to forget they almost didn't survive winter.  Last year I picked one of these queens to be a breeder queen because I got distracted by their great buildup and as a result I lost all the daughters over winter.

One of the hives I want to breed from this year is the Rosemary hive. I like this hive because they stored a good amount of honey and have kept the hive bottom board spotless all season.  The hive was split early spring last year and didn't have any other brood breaks.  My main concern is that the daughters from winter 2014 both died leaving queenless hives.  Other concerns are that they build crazy comb, and don't ignore you during inspections.  Sometimes that can turn into aggression with daughter hives.

The other hive I want to breed from is Quickdraw.  They already have capped drone brood and are building up very quickly and I'll be needing to do swarm management before the end of the month.  These bees are a little different from the other hives in that they stored a LOT of pollen mid summer and then had a big buildup during the dearth and then somehow replaced all the pollen with honey going into fall.  They build straight comb and ignore you during inspections.  However they didn't dry all the nectar and some of it fermented leaving the hive bottom board a bit "wet".  I also found a fair number of dead bees in the back of the hive on the bottom board.  Perhaps the dead bees were from trying to remove the fermented nectar. 

Sadly my camera battery died and I didn't get any hive photos today.  

Crocus are a great pollen source.

Calendula tends to start booming a little before the dandelions.

Lawn Daisy is already out in bloom.

Winter Daphne (Daphne odora) is a delicate shrub starts budding during the peak of our winter and is in full bloom by early spring.  These evergreens have thick waxy looking leaves with varieties ranging from either solid dark green, or yellow variegated.  The long lasting pink/white flowers are sweetly scented and tough enough to hold up in our late winter storms.  Plant in well-drained soil that can fully dry out between watering as they will quickly die in soggy or deeply watered locations which is why they have a reputation for being short lived plants.  A key to getting great blooms is to plant them in a location that gets morning sunlight and afternoon shade.  Pruning should be minimal and focused on removing diseased or dead branches keeping in mind that this is an open branched bush that needs airflow.  They can be easily started from cuttings, but will not transplant.

Most varieties of the Which hazel are just finishing up their bloom.

Dandelions are in bloom and are great pollen and nectar source.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff

First Hive Checks of the Year

Spring is definitely around the corner and there are lots of plants coming into bloom making pollen and nectar for the bees.  So far this year our weather has been cold but consistent staying just above freezing at night and sometimes getting above 50F during the day.  Fortunately we haven't had any storms blow in and sit above us for a week or so which is good for their build up.  

Crocus flowers offer up pollen.

Snowdrops

Miniature daffodils

Daffodils provide pollen.

Dandelions are usually a signal for hives to build up and they offer pollen and nectar.

Preparing to fly on these cold mornings (less than 45F).

As part of an update to the site I'm building a plant list with descriptions so you will occasionally see something with a little more detail in the regular blogs as part of this effort and here's the latest.

The Oregon Grape (Mahonia) is an attractive evergreen shrub with holly like leaves is a native to the northwest.   Different species of Mahonia can be found throughout North and Central America and in Asia, which are also planted around the city and may be hard to distinguish from our native varieties.  The Oregon grape has clusters of long lasting yellow blooms in early spring that are very attractive to honey bees and other pollinators (especially bumble bees - if you are lucky you will likely see the queens flying).  They do well in full sun to part shade and make good accent plants for gardens or even as hedges.  They get their common name form the clumps of small "editable" bluish berries that form late summer.

Cornelian cherry blooms bring these trees to life with color before the leaves come out.

I previously talked about hazelnuts and their catkins (male part) but it was still too early to see the flowers.  Here's a shot of both the open catkins and the tiny purple flowers above them (you can click on the picture for a larger view).  

Once pollinated the flowers will produce the nuts on this Corylus avellana.

Indian Plum is another early blooming native bush.

Flowering Red Currant buds.

White cherry flowers.

Pink plum flowers

Late winter blooming Hebe

It seems that Parasitic Mite Syndrome has taken on a new name and is being referred to as “Idiopathic Brood Disease Syndrome” (IBDS), which kills off bee larvae, and has been found as the largest risk factor for predicting the death of a bee colony.  I'm quite sure this is what spread through the hives last summer and took out several of them into the fall.  Sadly I hope not to run into this one again this year, but if nothing else at least it has a better acronym than PMS.

Cluster too small to keep themselves and the queen alive.  The heavy mold is an indication they died months ago in fall.  You can still see eggs in cells that had no bees to keep them warm.

Hive checks (3/3/2012)

Checked both the Sand and Surf hives.  The Surf hive appears to be doing good and there are a lot of bees eating the dry sugar, but the Sand hive didn't make it.  It looks like the Sand hive died late fall.

Hive checks (3/9/2012)

It was another nice day and was able to get a little deeper into the hives to see how they were doing.

Geeks
They had very little food around the cluster and moved several frames just before and after to give them some insurance in case the weather turns bad for a few days.  Saw signs of brood.  The cluster was across 3-4 frames.  Found signs of a secondary cluster in the front that looks like it starved.  I'm guessing they formed two clusters and the front cluster was too small to survive.

Icon Daughter Nuc
Similar to the Geeks but they actually seem like there were a little better off.  Moved frames of honey closer to the cluster.  They also had nice frames of capped brood.

Brood in early March.

Rebels
I'm not as optimistic about these girls.  I didn't see any signs of build up and the cluster seems to be be only across 2 frames.  They were a little pissy as well and suspect they might be queenless.

Surf
This hive by far looks the best of them all.  They didn't need any food moved closer and were still sitting on top of a lot of honey around the brood nest.  The cluster size was also very healthy and they had strong activity at the entrance.  This hive is in a warmer spot and gets 30-40% more sun over the other hives.

Entrance activity in early March.

Back to the bees.

- Jeff