Warm day!

richter1978 · December 29, 2014, 07:23:43 PM

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!

BeeMaster2 · 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

sterling · December 29, 2014, 10:06:48 PM

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.

BeeMaster2 · December 30, 2014, 12:55:49 AM

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

richter1978 · December 30, 2014, 07:25:10 PM

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!

Beeboy01 · December 30, 2014, 08:12:18 PM

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.

jayj200 · December 31, 2014, 10:33:27 PM

Mine are too

hope it is not a false alarm. and the wether turns

richter1978 · January 01, 2015, 02:50:22 PM

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.

don2 · January 01, 2015, 10:10:20 PM

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

jayj200 · January 01, 2015, 11:13:22 PM

were they looking for mushrooms? did you see the video? here you may get some weather

johng · January 04, 2015, 03:13:19 PM

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.