Ready for the Honey Flow

Inspected both hives and rotated boxes today in preparation for the major honey flow. By now the hives have been increasing in population and bringing in lots of pollen.

OV Queen & Nice Brood Pattern

I began with the OV hive and found the top box so full of bees, with the same amount for the second and third as well as the bottom box, which I had expected to be empty as bees move up come spring and why boxes need to be rotated this time of year. Instead, I found the bottom box to be as full as every other box. While it is good to have a strong and thriving hive, having an overpopulated hive can be a problem that leads to a swarm, and we all know a swarm leaves behind a weakened hive.

I know the Dmitry hive is not thriving as there have been very few bees flying. While inspecting I found very little brood in the very middle of the second box with the bottom box empty as expected. I rotated the boxes and added five frames of brood and bees from the OV hive to give the Dmitry hive a boost.

Dmitry Queen With Very Little Brood

In order to move bees from one hive to another without risking chaos I gave the frames and bees a good spray of sugar water mixed with Honey-B-Healthy, which is an essential oil made from spearmint and lemongrass, among other things. It masks the scent of the other hive and by the time the bees clean off the spray, they are all nice and friendly with one another.

Accobee Apiary

Common beekeeping sense says knows that the Dmitry queen is probably not a good queen. She was doing great initially when first installed last spring, but then her brood patterns became inconsistent  I'll keep an eye on her over the summer and may requeen her come fall.

I will be replacing the Sasha hive with a new package ordered with a Russian queen, which is due any time now.  There is no telling at this point if that will end up being a strong or a weak hive. Dmitry is definitely a weak hive at the moment and OV has been going strong with their third queen since installed in 2010. I've said it before but it's worth noting again, a strong queen makes for a strong hive which makes their own strong queens.

Pollen Chart

The overly warm days in my area with their very cool nights can be dangerous for a beekeeper who is eager to inspect the hives, rotate boxes and begin the next season of honey production. March is a deceptive time of year when hives are lost due to starvation as brood production increases and food stores are depleted.

It's tempting to open the hives the check on the amount of food remaining and while in them, to inspect for all the things a beekeeper should to determine the health of the hive. But unless the threat of cold has passed, its wiser to leave the hive intact for now. (The bees have it nicely sealed up with propolis.) The more sensible approach right now is to pull no more than a frame or two looking for stores. If needed, feed fondant and leave the liquid feeding for warmer times.

Snowdrop Pollen

As I was observing the hives yesterday, lots of colorful pollen was being brought in -- mainly olive green and red, which got me thinking about which plants are being visited by the bees.

Box Elder Pollen?

I know that Snowdrops have been blooming a couple weeks in my area, as evidenced by the red photographed on my bees. Trees are just coming into bloom here and so I suspect this lovely olive green pollen in the second photograph may be from a box elder.

I've created this a pollen chart as a guideline, sorted alphabetically by name withing the bloom times. These times are approximate for my area. I hope you'll begin to look at your blooms a little closer now and observe the colorful world of pollen!

Almond	Feb	light brown to brown pollen
American Elm	Feb - Apr	light grey
Grey Alder	Feb - Apr	brownish yellow
Manitoba Maple (Box elder)	Feb - Apr	light olive
Maple	Feb - Apr	light yellow
Willow	Feb - Apr	lemon
Winged Elm	Feb - Mar	pale yellow
American Hazel	Mar - Apr	light green
Basket Willow	Mar - Apr
Goat Willow	Mar - Apr
Pussy Willow	Mar - Apr
Red Maple	Mar - Apr	grey brown
Siberian squill	Mar - Apr	steel blue
Snowdrop	Mar - Apr	orange, red
Violet Willow	Mar - Apr
Winter aconite	Mar - Apr	yellow
Crab Apple	Mar - Jun	light olive
American Sycamore	Apr - May	light olive
Apple	Apr - May	yellow white
Black Cherry	Apr - May
Common Hackberry	Apr - May
Flowering Quince	Apr - May
Hawthorn	Apr - May	yellow brown
Henbit	April	orange red, red, purplish red
Norway maple	Apr - May	yellow green, olive
Peach	Apr - May	reddish yellow
Pear	Apr - May	red yellow
Plum	Apr - May	light grey, grey
Silky leaf osier, Smith's Willow	Apr - May
Sour Cherry	Apr - May	dark yellow
Walnut	Apr - May
White Ash	Apr - May
Wild Cherry	Apr - May	yellow brown, light brown
Yellow Crocus	April	orange yellow
American Chestnut	May - Jun
American mountain ash	May-Jun
Asparagus	May - Jun	bright orange
Black Locust	May - Jun
Blackberry	May - Jun	light grey
Canola	May - Jun	lemon
Chives	May - Sep
Chives	May - Sep
Clover	May - Aug
Honey Locust	May - Jun
Horse chestnut	May - Jun	light brown
Oak	May	light olive
Poppy	May - Jun	grey
Poppy	May - Jul	blueish grey
Raspberry	May - Jun	white grey
Sainfoin	May - Jul	yellow brown
Sweet Chestnut	May
Tulip-tree	May - Jun	cream
White Sweet Clover	May - Aug	yellow to dark yellow
Yellow Sweet Clover	May - Aug	yellow to dark yellow
Alyssum	Jun - Sep
Basswood or American Linden	Jun - Jul	yellow to light orange
Blueberry	Jun	red yellow, orange
Borage	Jun - Frost	blueish grey
Boston Ivy 'Veitchii'	Jun - Jul
Cat-tail	Jun - Jul
Elder	Jun - Jul	canary yellow
Leadwort syn. Indigobush	Jun - Jul
Lupin	Jun - Jul	white, yellow or blue
Mallow	Jun - Sep
Marigold	Jun - Sep	orange
Melons	Jun-Frost
Melons	Jun-Frost	pale yellow
Northern Catalpa	Jun - Jul
Phacelia	Jun - Sep	navy blue
Pumpkin	Jun-Frost	bright yellow
Pumpkin	Jun-Frost	bright yellow
Southern Catalpa	Jun - Jul
Sumac	Jun - Jul
Sunflower	Jun - Sep	golden
Sweet Corn	Jun - Jul	yellowish white
White Clover	Jun - Jul	caledonian brown
White mustard	June	lemon
Alfalfa	July - Aug	khaki
Buckwheat	Jul - Aug	light yellow to light green
Common vetch	Jul - Aug
Fireweed	Jul - Aug	blue
Germander	Jul - Aug
Heather sp.	Jul - Aug	yellow white, white
Knapweed	Jul - Aug
Spring Vetch	Jul - Aug
Star thistle	Jul - Sep
Virginia creeper	Jul - Aug
Hemp	Aug	yellow green
Garlic chives	Aug - Sep
Land-in-blue, Bushy Aster	Aug - Sep	bronze yellow
Smartweed	Aug - Sep
Bluebeard	Aug - Sep
Ivy	Sep - Oct	dull yellow or black?
Goldenrod	Sep - Oct	golden
Aster	Sep-Frost	reddish yellow
Sweet autumn clematis	late Sept	white
Alsike Clover		yellow brown
Basil
Blackthorn
Blue Thistle
Cherry Plum		light brown to brown
Chicory		white
Crimson Clover		dark brown
Cucumber		pale yellow
Europea field elm
Jewelweed		yellowish white
Knapweed		very light olive
Little Leaf Linden		citrine
Onion		light olive
Red Horse chestnut		raisin
White Sweet Clover		auburn
White Willow
Yellow Sweet Clover		auburn