I went into a few hives that have been very active lately. Lots of pollen and some nectar coming in from the maple trees and loquats. I found eggs in drone cells in a couple as well. Curious if its actually going to cool off or not, looks like the bees think its spring!
Rich,
This time of year, the bees are starting to build up their numbers. My OH has a softball size capped brood area. They started right around the winter solstice.
Jim
Quote from: sawdstmakr on December 29, 2014, 10:00:57 PM
Rich,
This time of year, the bees are starting to build up their numbers. My OH has a softball size capped brood area. They started right around the winter solstice.
Jim
you must have a fat OH. :-D sorry I read that as football size.
Sterling,
The hive is 2 frames wide and 4 medium frames high, the top pair of frames are empty foundationless frames.
And yes, I was referring to the size of the circumference of a softball. :-D
Jim
I didn't realize that it was normal to have drone brood (eggs) already. There was plenty of capped worker brood too, which I expected to see. Thanks!
They are bringing in pollen and making major brood in my 2 hives, did an inspection two days ago. The maples are already in bloom around Daytona and my hives are cranking it up.
Mine are too
hope it is not a false alarm. and the wether turns
I'm wondering about the weather turning. Here it can freeze as late as march. I guess one late freeze isn't that bad. There's still time for a longer cold spell too.
Quite a little ways from Fla. but I talked to a local beeker yesterday that said he had already seen a couple drones. The activity in my two hives is picking up. Lots of pollen coming in. I went and picked up a few bags of sugar today. Looking forward to increasing my heard this year. Out cutting fire wood one day miles from any Bee yards I noticed a couple bees wondering around, calls for some traps. D2
were they looking for mushrooms? did you see the video? here you may get some weather
I was putting on some pollen patties this past week and there was a bunch of drone brood in between the boxes. Looked like drone brood that had recently been capped. The Maples are wide open right now, I would imagine this cold front will give them a wake up call and you will see some drone brood pulled out by the end of the week. I normally don't see that amount of drone brood until middle Jan. it has been a pretty mild winter so far and I think the bees are a little bit a head of schedule so I guess we will have to wait and see how the weather plays out.