Author Topic: what is everyone seeing? (Read 23599 times)

D Coates · « **Reply #60 on:** February 09, 2015, 02:03:03 pm »

It got up above 50 this weekend and I open fed the girls syrup in both apiaries to give them a little boost in case they needed it. They collectively took down +/-100 pounds with no trouble. As I quickly reviewed landing board activity it was clear one of the hives found pollen. Light yellow with a little grey. Where it came from I don't have a clue and apparently neither did the other hives. It was exciting to see pollen though. It's a sign that spring is coming!

Beewildered61 · « **Reply #61 on:** February 09, 2015, 09:39:22 pm »

My girls were real active yesterday and Saturday...opened them up yesterday, two hives had some ants nothing major it seems...they still have honey in the super I left on for them, so doing good! Buttercups are blooming and a couple of buds on the Forsythia have opened!

10framer · « **Reply #62 on:** February 10, 2015, 11:11:30 am »

Quote from: asprince on February 08, 2015, 10:49:03 pm

I checked my hives today. I have NEVER seen so many hive beetles! Hundreds in every hive. I have got to get a handle on them or else.

Steve

i went through mine saturday and i didn't see a single beetle even in the two weak ones. i saw very few beetles last year but the two years before i had tons of them.
i'm surprised at how built up most of my hives are already. i've fed twice this winter and really could have skipped it on most of the hives. there is still a good bit of capped honey in most colonies.
if the weather doesn't get crazy over the next 5 or 6 weeks i think i'll be seeing swarm cells by early march this year.

10framer · « **Reply #63 on:** February 15, 2015, 01:23:49 am »

red maple is finally blooming along the flint river. i also saw some hen bit in bloom. too bad we've got a week of basically no-fly days for the bees.

Foxhound · « **Reply #64 on:** February 15, 2015, 05:06:56 pm »

Seeing lots of dandelions popping up and henbit is starting to emerge. I think the next warm spell will provide a lot of early forage for the bees.

Central Alabama

gww · « **Reply #65 on:** February 15, 2015, 05:11:56 pm »

What I hope I am not going to see is the possible 9 inches of snow forcasted for the next two days.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
gww

GSF · « **Reply #66 on:** February 16, 2015, 06:32:48 am »

Purple martins have migrated back up to Montgomery. Last week.

sterling · « **Reply #67 on:** February 16, 2015, 11:11:25 am »

Two inches ice on my back porch and freezing rain still falling this morning. Lows predicted below zero Wed night. The only polen my bees have seen is Ultrabee in buckets.

BeeMcq · « **Reply #68 on:** February 16, 2015, 02:42:24 pm »

Bees doing well, lots of pollen, brood exploding including drone, building new wax.
Temps down to 28 today no bees out today.

JanO · « **Reply #69 on:** February 18, 2015, 01:41:35 pm »

Right now we have cedar and hazelnut starting. I walked out in the woods yesterday and it looks like the maples will be blooming in a couple weeks or so. The girls are bringing in lots of pollen from somewhere.

GSF · « **Reply #70 on:** February 19, 2015, 07:22:46 am »

The girls are really hunting down water. The last couple of days when it got warm enough to fly they were gathered up at puddles. I keep white carpet in front of my hives and I thought something was wrong with a couple of my hives. It looked like hundreds of bees were out sunning themselves. I checked later and they were back inside. I guess they were getting the moisture from the carpet as well.

biggraham610 · « **Reply #71 on:** February 19, 2015, 01:29:09 pm »

10 degrees and due to go into negative digits tonight, snow on the ground, and thinking seriously about going and moving my smaller clusters to the basement till next week. Hope they are still alive. G

Michael Bush · « **Reply #72 on:** February 19, 2015, 02:59:06 pm »

>10 degrees and due to go into negative digits tonight...

And I thought VA was in the south...

10framer · « **Reply #73 on:** February 19, 2015, 04:09:32 pm »

yeah, it's not above freezing here yet and the wind is terrible. i fed sunday afternoon and i'll probably go ahead and do it again saturday. then i think i get 4 days of rain followed lows in the 20's for a few more days after that. clover is starting to get taller, blackberries and privet are putting on leaves. i went through some brood nests a couple of weeks ago and had 5-6 deep frames of brood in my biggest hives. i'm worried that after two weeks of being cooped up with all the emerging bees some of the hives will hit swarm mode by march 1st if anything decent is blooming. it could turn out to be an interesting spring.

biggraham610 · « **Reply #74 on:** February 19, 2015, 06:31:21 pm »

Quote from: Michael Bush on February 19, 2015, 02:59:06 pm

>10 degrees and due to go into negative digits tonight...

And I thought VA was in the south...

So did I................. G

jayj200 · « **Reply #75 on:** February 20, 2015, 09:48:13 am »

Global Warming

GSF · « **Reply #76 on:** February 22, 2015, 10:02:51 pm »

I went into 3 of my hives today. I saw drone brood in one of them

biggraham610 · « **Reply #77 on:** February 22, 2015, 10:16:18 pm »

Wow, was I pleasantly surprised today. I lost a hive here at the house the other night when it got in negative digits. That just bolstered my fear that the small clusters I had at my Pops place were toast. they are only the size of a softball. Went today to see and all three were kicking. I know we are not out of the woods yet, but, that being said, they made it through a beast of a cold snap.

Come on Spring! G

jayj200 · « **Reply #78 on:** February 23, 2015, 01:47:18 pm »

good to hear G

we finaly turned on the heat for on day and back off

richter1978 · « **Reply #79 on:** February 24, 2015, 10:00:55 am »

I'm seeing tons of bees sitting idle. Looks like they are ready for some real blooms!