It has just been gorgeous weather for about 5 days now. Lovely sun with highs in the 70's at times. Lots of trees are forming their buds and my bees have found these sources of pollen. I thought you might enjoy seeing some pics of them coming home with their little pollen sacs loaded. See the little globs of yellow on their back legs? Some of the pollen i have seen them carrying has been an orangish color also. The bees will make a bee bread to feed the little larvae if the queen has started laying. She stops during the winter but when the weather warms, and there is pollen to be gathered, she instinctually gets ready to lay. Our weather is suppose to change again for the following week, high's only to the 50's and nites back to the 20's, so still a bit of time before the queen starts laying prolifically I hope. I want to be quicker with putting on my honey supers this year. The type of bees I have left are Carniolans and they are fast to build up in the spring and a wee bit prone to swarming easily. So I must make sure and put the honey supers on quickly so the worker bees will be able to store the surplus honey in them and save the brood chambers for the queen and the new bees use. When the queen has a hard time finding a place to lay the eggs, the hive is at more risk to swarm.
Have you seen any bees out yet where you live? My brother saw a big carpenter bee come out from the wood under his porch today! I love those large bees, they are so cool!
2 comments:
Oh my gosh, I have never seen them up close to notice those pollen sacs! That is so amazing! I was reading about bee keeping last night in a book. Then I searched around online to price start up kits. I don't think we'll be able to do it this year, but it was good to get an idea to plan for it. And that gives me time to see your experiences! I have seen some honey bees around the last few days. I think they are wondering where my flowers are. :) I can't wait to get the flowers started either!
oh so very happy you enjoyed the pics jennifer! i am going to try and keep up some good pics and posts this year so i recommend reading as much as possible this year. i think i read for three years until i took the plunge!lol got bee fever now, and it seems as if maybe you are getting it too!lol cool that you have seen a few honeybees out! big hugs to you :)
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