Bee Chronicles April 2017
What a confusing month of March 2017. Weather patterns up and down, windy or not, and maybe rainy but not for too many days at a time.
The three day cold snap killed the red maple blossoms early creating a gap until the next good bloomer comes along. It has not come along yet on the 24th of March. That is 2 ½ weeks with the bees squeaking by. There has been adequate pollen to feed the bees and hopefully enough new stored honey.
The good news is this has retarded the queen’s egg laying. If the brood pattern gets too big too early and then the cluster reforms over an extended cold spell there will be chilled and killed brood. We want the queens to be active but not too active. When the food (nectar and pollen) is coming in strongly, the queen increases egg laying. When it is coming in slowly she lays fewer eggs. You don’t want more larvae than the food source can feed. The number of nurse bees will also influence the egg laying. Hence, early in the spring few eggs are laid. As more bees hatch out the queen will increase egg laying (more nurse bees). This geometric increase results in slow build up early and then an explosion when continual good weather arrives.
I have several queens who are satisfied with their population numbers and have started laying drone eggs. This is the first sign of swarm preparation. Next the worker population will explode, and supersession queen cells will be started.
It is hard to stop swarming one queen cells start to show up. This year swarms will start early because we have had too much good weather too early. I recommend doing splits now, before queen cells form. BUT, if you do that you need to purchase a mated queen. You need those supersession queen cells to grow a new queen in your split. If you wait for the supersession cells you will have to manage the loosing hive so that they just don’t draw more supersession queens and go ahead and swarm.
Some folks out there are old enough or should I say lived in the mountains long enough to remember April 9, 2009. That is the year the hard frost killed the leaves and flowers on the trees. We got a great rhododendron honey flow that year. This is known as “mother-in-law” honey. It is slightly poisonous to humans and will make you violently ill. It tastes so bad I don’t see how you could eat enough (one good spoonful) to get sick. You also cannot get the taste out of your mouth. Feed some to your mother-in-law and she won’t come back. How far along were the blooms that year? It was just the start of Tulip poplar bloom which is our spring flow volume. As you look around we are not that far into leafing out yet. There is always some good news.
First of April is usually a good time to put in packages of bees. We were 2 weeks ahead of that this year (2017). We didn’t have much choice on when we get the packages. It was either mid March or early May (which is way too late). Normally, the last week of March and first week of April it is touch and go about freezing nights. Mid March is usually tolerable so I went early this year. Sure enough I picked the week that resulted in 3 freezing nights in a row. The 16th of March was the day we passed the bees out and that was the last night of freezing into the 20’s. Putting the bees in their hives during the warmer days of 17-18 March resulted in good enough weather that the packages clustered nicely around the queens. Most of the new colonies survived.
What will bloom next? I see sweet bush budding and eastern red bud. Usually these two do not bloom together. Sweet bush should be first ( a yellow feathery bloom) and then red bud (bright dark pink small bloom clusters). Last year they bloomed one after the other by 2 weeks. In 2015 they bloomed together. Bees like both of these. If you remember Henbit weed, its cousin pagoda plant is in full bloom now. It creates a rich purple carpet. Plant can be up to 6” tall consisting of layers of flowers that resemble the roof on a Chinese pagoda. Lots of pollen and nectar here. I think we are getting back on track for “normal” bloom times. Watch for wild black raspberry (blue canes) and then wild blackberries. I am thinking at least 4 weeks for the raspberry. That puts tulip poplar trees about 2nd week of May. Oak trees need to bloom before their leaves come out. It is all pollen. I don’t see these “catkins” coming yet. Another good shrub for bees is American Holly. That is the common one in the forests. It is an early spring bloomer. How are folks’ blueberries. I don’t think they got frosted.
Did you know that corn pollen was a really poor bee pollen. They collect it like crazy. But, it has virtually no food value to the honey bee. In Indiana (and other corn states) if you have a corn monoculture (no other type crops or weeds) your bees will nearly starve to death and get week and sick. Pine pollen that gets so thick and covers your deck, etc. also has no food value to honey bees. Search out good bee food flowers and plant them along the county road and the power corridor. Everywhere weeds should be growing plant cosmos, asters, different type sunflowers (the best), zenias. Keep something blooming all sumer.