No pollen?

[sweet bee]

I haven't seen my girls bringing in pollen for several days. Is this normal? Is there something I should be doing?

~Angie

[AllenF]

Welcome to July, just here a little early.   Honey production is dried up until goldenrod blooms. Or at least this is the traits north of you here in North Georgia.  That far south I can not say for sure.   Have you got cotton fields nearby?

[sweet bee]

lots and lots of cotton fields, just not sure when they will be blooming. Will they be ok until then?
Can you tell than I'm one of those overly protective mothers? :-D

[qa33010]

Around here it is summer and fall garden blooms and trumpet vine and again this year crepe myrtles.  The only one I know of that gives any real amount of nectar is the trumpet vine.  Unfortunately it is starting to get killed off pretty heavily in the area. 

[sc-bee]

It's just the normal flow of things --- pollen on- pollen off. Lots of time in our parts when no pollen. The question is do they have enough stores to get them through the dearth (if you are indeed in a dearth) or do they need feeding sugar water to help them through? I heard a local beekeeper give a presentation once and the info he gathered said more bees starve in July than any other month (not sure of his source of info). But it stands to reason if folks think they are ok and forget to feed if needed.

When did you start them and what is their current condition?

[sweet bee]

I installed them 8 weeks ago and so far they look great. I noticed last Friday that they did have some honey stores but I'm not sure if it is enough. I also started feeding them a little just to get them by until the cotton starts to bloom. (I think I noticed a couple of blooms already in the nearby fields.)

~Angie