Bee Chronicles

7 June, 2022

I make these journal entries by day because it is so confusing. I need to write the newsletter around the 20^th of the month. A lot is happening in the two weeks before the June meeting.

20 April Wild Cherries in the sun are blooming, no blooms yet on shaded trees

Wild black raspberry and blackberries starting to show buds; about the size of a wooden match head; no color yet

21 April Tulip poplar Buds starting to fall (dropped by squirrels eating them)

Immature buds only as long as first joint of thumb; tightly wrapped with prepetals. Leaves are just opening and not fully grown yet

26 April Looks like it is snowing outside. Wait! Wait! They are tan. They are poplar leaf prepetals. About the size of your index finger nail. Being tan they have been open for a day or two but still attached to the leaf bud (which are now more open). We are having a slight storm front moving in from the west. The breeze is knocking the prepetals off the trees by the thousands.

1 May First almost mature tulip poplar flower bud half eaten by squirrels on the ground (means one week before general blooming). Hope it is a gradual bloom vs. warmer weather and all opening simultaneously). Trip to Athens GA blackberry in full bloom at Cleveland GA (means about a week before we are).

2 May So much for gradual. The Tulip Poplars are opening. My blackberries are not in bloom. Mulky Gap Rd, blackberries are in full bloom and black locust bloomed today. Honey supers going on hives in the next few days.

Blooms seem to be just a little early for timing and like last 3 years bunched together. Normal is: early May for wild black raspberry, then 10 days to black berry, then 10 days to tulip poplar. Let’s see if Tulip poplar is still blooming the 3^rd week of May. Okay, it is 16 May, the third week. Tulip poplar doing wonderfully well. I see tight bud still being dropped by the squirrels. Weather man predicting low to mid 80’s for the rest of the week (that is the low 90’s for Atlanta). Maybe, spotty showers. This will hold the temperature down and not be driving rain and wind. Tulip poplar will keep producing nectar for another week.

12 May Black Locust blooming at Chris Todd’s house near Sunrise Grocery south of Blairsville on Hwy 129 S. Up in elevation from me.

15 May I can not believe it! The Black Locust is blooming about 200 ft. altitude below my house. I still don’t see any around the house or bee yard. Squirrels are having a good time eating Tulip Poplar blossoms. There are enough to share.

23 May Rain is stripping the petals off the more mature tulip poplar blossoms. This may not hurt honey collection too much as the blossoms are mature

24 May Finding not too open tulip poplar blossoms on the ground dropped by squirrels. Hopefully there are plenty left in the tree tops.

25 May Expecting thunderstorms and heavy rain. This could end tulip poplar honey about 2 weeks early. Some of my hives have nearly full shallow honey supers. None capped yet. Bee colonies are just getting really built up and extra ready for honey collection. 5 Nucs, 17 colonies, about ½ ½ double deeps full of bees and honey and single deeps full of bees and honey. All the double have honey supers, 5 single deeps just getting ready for honey supers.

26 May Steady rain today. Sometimes heavy, mostly drizzle. Not very high winds. About 30% of tulip poplar blossoms are still on the trees. This is good. Nectar was washed out of the blossoms. Those that are not damaged will produce nectar a few days after the rain stops. Hoping no violent storm comes through.

Chinese Chestnuts in full bud Sourwood starting to tassle

30 May Japanese Privet in full bloom down by Lake Notley. Not quite at my gate. Watch for Sumac to start blooming. Both come after Tulip poplar. Too much privet can add a strong taste to the honey mixed with it. Sumac adds a caramel taste. Both are dark honeys.

Ripe Black Raspberries are small

No Spring Bagworms who like sourwood

Oh well, the colonies will be ready for sourwood. Am making up more honey supers.

What does all this flower watching tell you? That you have to live with your bee hives. Okay, you can sleep in your bed at night, if you don’t have bears attacking your apiary. The blooms and subsequently what your bees are doing changes rapidly and you need to be ready for what is next (nectar flow and honey collection). If the temperatures get up over 80^o F everything will happen faster

Next means remove all mite treatments from out of the hive. Make sure honey supers have comb (preferably) or foundation ready to be placed on the hive. Place them on the hive with the first black raspberry or blackberry, or tulip poplar blooms that “pop” in your neighborhood. Your neighborhood is out to 2 miles from the hive.

Bee populations are growing nicely. Some beekeepers are losing a queen here or there. My recommendation is to combine a mediocre hive with another mediocre one vs. growing or buying a new queen this close to nectar flow. Go into the nectar flow with a good strong colony. If a strong hive loses a queen let them grow a new queen during the nectar flow. The brood break is good for reducing the varroa mite population.

If you replace a queen with a purchased queen, it is the $80 overnight delivery charge that makes it untenable. You can ship 10 queens for the same price as one. Look for a local queen that you can drive over and pick up. This is where “replacement parts” nucs come in very handily.

I am still feeding syrup until mid-May. Watching the blooms to remove the syrup when the blooms start. Any honey supers that I am drawing comb in (with syrup) that inadvertently have syrup honey in, I will remove from the colony and place out in the field so they can be robbed clean. Then, I will replace them onto the hive to be filled with nectar honey. The robbed syrup honey will be place in the colony brood area keeping the honey supers uncontaminated with syrup.

My neighbor, ½ mile as the crow flies, has the state bear trap out. The trapper says the picture on the trail cam it the largest bear he has ever seen. The bear goes around the trap smelling the bait by will not go in the trap. The racoon chases the possum away and goes in the trap to eat the bait, but is too light to set it off. The pictures of the destruction are interesting. The bear has not violated the reinforced electric fence. I have been hit by the bears twice recently. The fence is working correctly. These appear to be young bears that have not been adequately trained. They get in or partially in and nock over one or two hives on the way out as they are shocked. They don’t hang around long enough to eat the larvae.

The foragers are bringing in lots of nectar. If you fed enough syrup the bees are starting on the honey supers, quite rapidly.