Dang.... unbelievable. We have a minute flow if anything. We should be in a full blown flow. Looks like we missed all the early stuff. I came out of winter with plenty feed. Not so now!!! At this rate I will be feeding before long. Ain't stopping swarms though. Have done every thing I can possibly think of. Heck I am out of drawn comb and they won't even pull out foundation in the brood chamber. Eating up all the stores and swarming with plenty room to boot. Heck my once strongest hive .... I condensed down to a stacked five frame double nuc today :'(
On track for my worst year of my ten :? We are an area of only a two month flow anyway - April and May. No fall build-up. I think this odd weather really put the whammy on us :tumbleweed:
mine shut down last week (except for swarming). they were working clover and blackberry at about 6:00 this evening.
this is my second season in the area and it seems like there are maybe 60-75 days of flow then a goldenrod flow in the fall. this year it looks like everything is going to overlap. i'm going to plant an acre or two of buckwheat around the 7th of may and hope that it stays cool until early june. maybe they'll do more with sumac this year, it bloomed and the local pollinators were all over it but never saw my bees working it.
Is it warm enough to feed? they will stop when nature supplies enough.
jay
we are supposed to be in our flow, April and May. My bees are bringing in some nectar but not supers worth. I have lots of new white wax though. My over wintered hives are expanding. The bees are working privet, clover, betony
Quote from: jayj200 on April 22, 2014, 09:01:01 AM
Is it warm enough to feed? they will stop when nature supplies enough.
jay
Plenty warm enough to feed ..... point trying to make is this time of year I should not have too. Very unpredictable year to say the least.
Quote from: HomeSteadDreamer on April 22, 2014, 09:03:22 AM
we are supposed to be in our flow, April and May. My bees are bringing in some nectar but not supers worth. I have lots of new white wax though. My over wintered hives are expanding. The bees are working privet, clover, betony
Our early producers are over. Really not even enough to sustain a growing hive. All my hives came out of winter with a shallow of honey. Most have about depleted it. Blackberries have just bloomed recently and tulip popular will be next. Hope they do some catching up.
mine are drawing combs in the brood chambers but they aren't moving up. this has been a little frustrating for me for different reasons. i made 4 frame splits taking the queen as soon as i started seeing queen cells and most of those hives swarmed after they had a mated queen anyway. it's fine for increase but not for production. i'm probably going to split my splits and combine half of them back to the original hives for the flow. i think everything is just running late but there will be a really intense flow if it doesn't get rained out.
if they aren't bringing anything in and they have no stores you might consider feeding a little.
The consolidation is what I start tomorrow. I don't see them bringing a whole lot in yet. I hope to catch the flow with large colonies in at least 12 hives.
ray, i got the idea of combining them back from you.
Quote from: 10framer on April 22, 2014, 03:29:39 PM
ray, i got the idea of combining them back from you.
I was wondering why it sounded like such a good idea. :-D The only thing that I'm going to do special is open the brood nest. I figured the equivalent of 3 deep boxes ought to do it.
sc-bee I'm not to far away here in Lexington but my bees are building white wax pretty good, guess it dont take many miles to make a big difference. I'm not doing very good with the swarm thing either got one out of 5 that has not built Q cells. Did one false swarm that worked, need to do another now but it's raining. Each hive has a good bit of capped honey, well 3/4 capped anyway.
Good luck
dan
Quote from: dprater on April 22, 2014, 05:52:30 PM
sc-bee I'm not to far away here in Lexington but my bees are building white wax pretty good, guess it dont take many miles to make a big difference. I'm not doing very good with the swarm thing either got one out of 5 that has not built Q cells. Did one false swarm that worked, need to do another now but it's raining. Each hive has a good bit of capped honey, well 3/4 capped anyway.
Good luck
dan
Yea, my mentor is just down the road in Batesburg area. If you go to midlands I am sure you know LC. The sources change quite a bit at the sand ridge line. In the past he has had a lot of bees on holly and sparkle-berry but the sparkle-berry has been mostly miss the last several years. We get blackberry, tulip popular and privet, that is about it.
sc-bee
mine our drawing white wax but very slowly
i feel your aggravation.
something is a little off down here for sure
I have seen other hives drawing white wax though, but they were "newer" hives
Chris
I was wondering if the excess rain may have water down the sweetness of the floras. I know a lot of times during a rainy summer things like watermelons, peaches, plums, and so on, just don't taste as good compared to the years of drought. I think the sugar content is higher then since the water is lower. Just my way of thinking.
Okay Steve,
White wax here, last years hive, burr comb. I think it's over. You should be 10 to 14 days away. Began recombining today.
Quote from: RHBee on April 23, 2014, 11:37:12 PM
Okay Steve,
White wax here, last years hive, burr comb. I think it's over. You should be 10 to 14 days away. Began recombining today.
I guess we will see?
my bees are working like there is a flow on. not moving up into supers like i'd like them to but maybe i'm being a little impatient.
scary thing is that my clover has opened up good but i still have blackberries and laurel blooming. also noticed privet is going to be in very soon and the poplars don't show any sign of blooms.
this is all out of order (except the privet is about on time). last year the privet only lasted a couple of weeks then there was nothing until goldenrod.
seeing the privet coming in is making me a little nervous.
10framer, today I just saw the first privet blooms on branch tips so yours should be coming very soon. I've got the same here in regards to clover.....the small, low-growing yellow clover (my predominate type) is in full bloom right now and blackberry is still blooming. But, the bees appear to be working something that I haven't figured out yet as they take off from the hive and completely fly past the yellow clover around them. I figure in another week the privet will have started in earnest. The bees have been busy but I'm not seeing a fast filling of comb. A couple of hived swarms are building comb and putting up a little honey, but it just seems slow...something just a bit "off". :-\
Ed
The 'summer' has been in full swing this side of the world for some time already - most of the fruit trees have done with blooming already.
Out my 12 hives at least 3 are doing really well. The others are a bit slow but that is because they have been 'messed' with too much - putting them all in new hives and some have been rehived later than others and 1 I split as I rehived them and 1 has a possible laying worker and 1 is still in the old haive and has swarmed. Well all in all I'm happy with what I'm seeing... :)
For me the white wax is the most wonderful sight in the world!
Quote from: Spear on April 27, 2014, 01:44:56 AM
For me the white wax is the most wonderful sight in the world!
Wish I could see some :?
I was just on honeybeenet. I wanted to check bloom dates for poplar. I found that holly and poplar share the same bloom period, april-june. My holly trees haven't dropped last years berries yet. I was wondering if our ice storms hadn't somehow set back the normal bloom times for poplar as well. Only time will tell.
Quote from: RHBee on April 27, 2014, 06:21:20 AM
I was just on honeybeenet. I wanted to check bloom dates for poplar. I found that holly and poplar share the same bloom period, april-june. My holly trees haven't dropped last years berries yet. I was wondering if our ice storms hadn't somehow set back the normal bloom times for poplar as well. Only time will tell.
One of my holly trees at the farm had blooms and berries at the same time last week. Look close.
Jim
my concern is that the frost a couple of weeks ago got the buds on the poplar trees.
swamp, there is a lot of that yellow clover on the shoulder of the road but i have a few acres of crimson and ball clover planted. the bees are working mine and still working the blackberry. the swarms are all building comb but swarms seem to find a way no matter what.
i'm going to plant my buckwheat next weekend. that should time it so that it comes in as privet plays out. my vitex and butterfly bushes are greening up.
when the wind blows i can smell something blooming but i don't know what it is. it seems familiar like i should know it.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on April 27, 2014, 06:45:37 AM
Quote from: RHBee on April 27, 2014, 06:21:20 AM
I was just on honeybeenet. I wanted to check bloom dates for poplar. I found that holly and poplar share the same bloom period, april-june. My holly trees haven't dropped last years berries yet. I was wondering if our ice storms hadn't somehow set back the normal bloom times for poplar as well. Only time will tell.
One of my holly trees at the farm had blooms and berries at the same time last week. Look close.
Jim
Double checked. No blooms, buds but no blooms. Could be the same with poplar.
Quote from: RHBee on April 27, 2014, 12:08:30 PM
Quote from: sawdstmakr on April 27, 2014, 06:45:37 AM
Quote from: RHBee on April 27, 2014, 06:21:20 AM
I was just on honeybeenet. I wanted to check bloom dates for poplar. I found that holly and poplar share the same bloom period, april-june. My holly trees haven't dropped last years berries yet. I was wondering if our ice storms hadn't somehow set back the normal bloom times for poplar as well. Only time will tell.
One of my holly trees at the farm had blooms and berries at the same time last week. Look close.
Jim
Double checked. No blooms, buds but no blooms. Could be the same with poplar.
Hope not.... popular is one of my last hopes. I usually don't see bloom on them until over in May....
Quote from: sc-bee on April 27, 2014, 01:06:13 PM
Quote from: RHBee on April 27, 2014, 12:08:30 PM
Quote from: sawdstmakr on April 27, 2014, 06:45:37 AM
Quote from: RHBee on April 27, 2014, 06:21:20 AM
I was just on honeybeenet. I wanted to check bloom dates for poplar. I found that holly and poplar share the same bloom period, april-june. My holly trees haven't dropped last years berries yet. I was wondering if our ice storms hadn't somehow set back the normal bloom times for poplar as well. Only time will tell.
One of my holly trees at the farm had blooms and berries at the same time last week. Look close.
Jim
Double checked. No blooms, buds but no blooms. Could be the same with poplar.
Hope not.... popular is one of my last hopes. I usually don't see bloom on them until over in May....
Steve, I'm saying that there are buds, just getting ready to bloom. Maybe the poplar is the same as the holly. Our flow hasn't really started yet. That's good news.
Did a quick check today and still no WW. A little nectar coming in but no white pristine capping going on. At this point we are about 3 weeks behind normalc. If there is such a thing.
I checked a queen castle I left 4 cells in ---- I really blew that one. Will try to post details in the queens section :-\
Finally a small amount ..... and tulip popular is beginning to bloom. Hope I can salvage a little....
Quote from: sc-bee on April 29, 2014, 09:20:58 PM
Finally a small amount ..... and tulip popular is beginning to bloom. Hope I can salvage a little....
.......he said before the biblical flood hit.
i'm really not laughing at you, i'm laughing with you because i'm in the same boat.
last year i was only worried about increases but i had a lot more foundation being drawn than this year and my hives are much stronger overall than they were then.
Just to brag a bit: I took these photos today in my hives:
(http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t596/Tracy_Spear/Photo0107_zpscab58712.jpg) (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Spear/media/Photo0107_zpscab58712.jpg.html)
(http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t596/Tracy_Spear/Photo0110_zpsbae1aff0.jpg) (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Spear/media/Photo0110_zpsbae1aff0.jpg.html)
Nice Spear.
Framer most of the storm missed us.....but not sure how heavy the poplar bloom will be...
just rode out and made sure mine weren't blown over. the privet is opening up.
i don't know what to think. i have green blackberries on some bushes and some still haven't bloomed.
maybe all the plants will have long blooming periods this year.
Quote from: sc-bee on April 29, 2014, 09:20:58 PM
Finally a small amount ..... and tulip popular is beginning to bloom. Hope I can salvage a little....
Well I was close. Now we have a better idea how our locations make a difference.
Quote from: RHBee on April 30, 2014, 11:57:19 PM
Quote from: sc-bee on April 29, 2014, 09:20:58 PM
Finally a small amount ..... and tulip popular is beginning to bloom. Hope I can salvage a little....
Well I was close. Now we have a better idea how our locations make a difference.
Such an odd year Ray. Probably not one to base anything on :?
popped a couple of tops this afternoon and some are finally up in the supers drawing out foundation. i might actually get a little honey this year.
The girls were working holly bushes pretty heavy for a couple of weeks. The holly bushes finished about a week ago.
Quote from: chux on May 01, 2014, 10:47:41 PM
The girls were working holly bushes pretty heavy for a couple of weeks. The holly bushes finished about a week ago.
My holly bushes flowered a full month before my holly trees. It's like a little something to wet their whistle. :)
a friend of mine never did get white wax,
all he got was bright yellow
jay