Bee Chronicles

4 February 2020

Why do I worry about someone else's weather? We have to be prepared ahead of our bees. The current situation can change very quickly! Years of experience has taught me where the bloom will be 30 days ahead of Blairsville. The Atlanta airport is nearly 6 weeks ahead of us. Between Jasper and Ellijay is a long 30 days away. Ellijay to Blue Ridge is 30 days away. Gainesville is about 30 days away. But which side of town? Really it is Lake Lanier that warms that region up. So, Gainesville to Dawsonville is about the same. Commerce and Clarksville are about a month ahead of us. I can either take a trip every now and again or just call my beekeeper friends in the surrounding locations and check on them.

This technique is not fool proof because we can get a freeze anytime that it is warm. The last killer frost is "Mothers' day" around May 10.

13 March 1993, 3 feet of snow that stayed on the ground for 3 weeks. 9 April 2009, the tulip poplar was in full bloom. It frosted so hard for 48 hours all the tree leaves were killed. It looked like fall in the forests. Hives full of bees and nothing to eat. The next bloom was the Mountain Laurel which the bees usually avoid. We made barrels of mountain laurel honey which is sickeningly poisonous. It won't kill you but you wish it would. It tears up your stomach. You can't get the taste out of your mouth. It is so bad it will drive your mother-in-law away.

This year I say the weather is running about 20+ days early. Cold for Halloween and again the beginning of December. Too warm in January. The end of January should be Cold! It is 27 January and 50^o. I need to check my hives for food and brood.

February is "the mysterious die-off month". The bees will be in too small of a cluster and freeze. Or, they will be out of food and starve. Maybe, the weather will be warm-cool-warm-cold nights. Small groups of bees will get caught too far away from the cluster when the temperature drops rapidly at night and they will freeze in the extremities of the hive. If this happens very often it causes the cluster to become smaller to the point that it can freeze, killing the queen. HENCE, when you have days around 55^o and no breeze check your hives.

The pussy willows are just thinking about blooming. The smooth catkin buds are growing, but I haven't seen the pistols and stamens protruding through the catkins yet. My mahonia grape holly is budding well and should bloom with the next warm spell. 25 Jan. I saw jonquils in full bloom in the upper reaches of Coopers Creek. They must have had just perfect sunlight. The flowering quince buds are bright pink and will bloom soon. This is all pretty normal.

What scares me is: a frost can kill the quince blooms. The jonquils are budding too much. They should be no bigger than 4" tall and can take being buried in 5" of snow. Snow is an insulator. Dawsonville has large dandelion bloom going on. Commerce has red maples in full bloom along the blacktop highway. It is a little early for all these conditions. Are we currently 20 days in advance and that pattern will continue for the rest of the year? Or, will we get caught by a "Chicago Zephyr" cold spell.

My bees are bringing in a very light tan pollen. I think it is Alder. Alder grows mostly along water and has a catkin bloom. It blooms very early and can with stand freezes because the water mitigates the temperature drop.

If your bees are starting to brood, you might consider getting ready to feed syrup and pollen substitute. I do this just to even out the "food availability curve". The bees work hard on the warm days and then stay home on the cool days. This causes the queen to lay eggs and then not lay (or slow down). By providing food in the hive the queen will continue to lay eggs more regularly. This will allow the population to build faster.

The brood area can out grow the size of the cold day cluster. Those larvae outside of the warm area under the cluster will die. So, the next few warm days you might see dead larvae thrown out the front door. This is not a problem as you will still have a net gain in population growth.

Make sure you are using this time to get your hives prepared for spring use. Do you need to clean out and repaint some hive bodies? Do you need to get some frames loaded with foundation? Do you have some packages coming when you will need a new hive complete with frames of foundation? Are you prepared to feed your bees if the need arises?

There is no time of the year when a beekeeper can completely rest!