One Month Away

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1. ChoosingLife says:

   2/25/2008 at 9:40 am

   Good News from a Hudson honeybeekeeper, who is also 100% pro-life!
   Both of the honeybee colonies have survived the cold winter, so far. We hadn’t seen any activity in the hives for 2 weeks, and with the deep freeze, we thought for sure they were dead. Expecting dead hives, we got in the hives on Sunday to clean them up only to be greeted by a huge mound of honeybees. If they don’t die from too much moisture build-up in the hive, we’re in good shape. This is interesting information from our honeybeekeeper’s site:

   Friday, February 22, 2008
   The Almond Bloom – How it Affects Our Bees

   Bees in almond grove

   The Almond bloom in California a requires about 1 million colonies of bees. Beekeepers from around the country converge here in February.
   Almond trees are a unique tree. They bloom in February and California is about the only place in the world that provides the proper growing temperatures.
   Hive pollination fees range from $100 – $150 dollars per colony.
   Normally the early trees bloom around Feb 8. Later variety’s bloom a couple weeks later then, the late bloomers come in a couple weeks after that. By mid to late March it is usually over.
   This year the bloom hasn’t started yet. It looks like it will begin within the next few days.
   My source for this report claims that this is the latest bloom in memory.
   How does this affect us?
   Being that there is no bloom happening, there is no pollen coming in. Queens can’t be raised until fresh pollen is available. The drone population is lower without pollen coming in. Proper mating depends on large drone population and warm weather. Package bees can’t be shaken until the bloom ends and pollination contracts are finished. My supplier of package bees does get permission from his almond grower to shake bees in the late stages of the bloom. Most almond growers don’t allow this to happen until the last blossom falls off the trees.
   Normally grafting of queens will start a week after the bloom starts. This year grafting will start three days after the bloom starts. The bloom will be intense with many trees bursting open at once. Pollen will be coming in large quantities.
   All the California queen producers are all waiting for this to happen. This late grafting start may affect package bee delivery and early queen availability. Any delay should not be more than one week but it is to early to make any guess.

   Posted by Jim at 8:13 PM 0 comments
   Tuesday, February 19, 2008
   Colony Starvation
   I am concerned for my colonies.
   This cold has hung on a bit and is coming at a bad time.
   I know there is brood in the hive this time of year. This cold weather forces the bees to eat more food to keep the brood warm. The food will deplete around the brood. If the cold stays long or the bees are on a frame with not much food, there is a possibility for starvation.
   Even if there is frames of honey in the hive, the bees will not leave the brood. With the cold the bees will stay in a tight cluster unable to move to new stores of food.
   So it will be necessary to check the hives again to see if they survived this cold snap. A colony that was alive a week ago could be dead by the time the cold passes.

   Posted by Jim at 5:30 AM 0 comments

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