Turkeys ready for Spring

Early this morning I notice that there were a dozen turkeys walking around in our front yard.  I took the chance to take some pictures out of our front door.

One old tom kept puffing himself up in the driveway.

He is really quite a pretty old tom, but he seems to be missing a few tail feathers.

A group of tops showing off near the garden fence.

I did get into the garden to clean off some of the last year's trash from the asparagus bed and took the straw off of the strawberry bed.  Here there were some leaf buds from one of the rhubarb plants poking out of the soil.

This is the other rhubarb plant coming up with green leaves showing.

I did also take the chance to check my hives.  With temperatures in the mid 50s there was lots of activity around all three hives.  It's probably getting close to when I can take off the winter wrapping and mouse guards and take down the windbreak.  This is the north hive that just uses its bottom entrance for some reason.

Here's the middle hive with bees flying and going in and out of the top entrance.

The north hive has bees using both entrances but they seem to prefer the top entrance.  The brood is probably in the top box at this time of year and the top entrance is closer to the action.

The crocuses have been blooming this week.  These are the large crocuses I have planted hear the old dog kennel.

Daffodils are nearly ready to  bloom under the protection of bushes in front of the house.

Bees starting to bring in pollen

I checked the beehives today and they were all still doing well.  I took some pictures to record their status.
This is the bottom entrance of the North hive where bees were coming and going quickly.

I opened it up to check the sugar stores and see that they are getting close to consuming it all.  This box was full of 16 pounds of sugar in November when I put it on.  This hive has eaten more than the other two.

I added some pollen patties to help them build up brood as the Spring progresses.  The pollen patties give them protein to help raise new bees.

The top entrance of the middle hive (on the right) was quite active as well.

They haven't consumed nearly as much as the first hive but have eaten through the sugar in one spot and much of the rest of the sugar block is largely gone underneath.  I pushed in a few thin places t open it up more.

I added a small pollen patty to this hive too.  I went smaller because there aren't quite as many bees here and this hive has shown some signs of having hive beetles, who are strongly attracted to these patties. So, I didn't want to put any more in than the bees could consume fairly quickly.

The bottom entrance of the south hive was pretty busy as well.

The top entrance of that hive was also very active.

This hive was between the other two in consumption of sugar.  The had eaten through most of the sugar block but still had quite a bit left.and showed a lot of bees on the top bar.

I put some pollen patties in this hive as well to help with the buildup.

I noticed though that some bees were bringing in natural pollen as well.  Here one of the bees returning to the hive through the open top has large yellow balls of pollen in her pollen sacs on her hind legs.  By the color, I would say that this is maple pollen.

I watched the bottom entrance of the north hive as well and saw several bees returning with the same kind of pollen.  here two bees returning have pollen on their legs.

First signs of Spring

I noticed two little crocuses blooming next to our driveway yesterday and today there were several more.  The temperature today got up to 70 degrees so it really felt like Spring.  Several flocks of geese flew over headed north, and there were robins and bluebirds singing in the garden.

I also saw the first butterfly of Spring.  This is a "Mourning Cloak" butterfly.  This is the second one that I saw -- I didn't have my camera when I saw the first one yesterday.

I've actually been pruning my fruit trees this year and as it has been a couple of years since I have done so, I find that I am taking quite a bit off of some of them.  These are red delicious apple trees after pruning.   I know they aren't shaped right but after several years of poor pruning, this is the best I could do this year.

These are my two larger pear trees, in the middle and to the right.  I cut these down quite a bit taking a lot off of the top.  There are still some long awkward branches, but I felt like I had taken as much off as I could this year without hurting the trees.

Naturally, I checked my bees too.  This is the bottom entrance of the North hive with lots of activity.

This is the top entrance of the middle hive -- the entrance that they seem to be using most.  This is not quite as active as the other two hives, but still quite active.

Here is the bottom entrance of the South hive with quite a bit of activity coming and going.

The top entrance of the South hive was also quite active.

I also checked the sugar boxes on each of the hives.  I had put a box with 16 pounds of sugar in each hive in November to provide additional emergency food for the bees during the winter.  You can see here that the North hive has consumed most of the sugar though there is some left.  They are favoring the South side of the hive which is also the part of the entrance that they use mostly, if not exclusively.  This hive has always, for some reason, been lopsided that way.  The "quilt box" containing cedar chips in this hive was quite damp for some reason.  This have must not have had as good ventilation, or perhaps its in part related to larger numbers of bees that this hive seems to have.

This is the sugar box in the middle hive.  The bees have eaten completely through the sugar in one spot and you can see that the sugar is very thin in the dark places where bees have almost eaten it through.

I broke through the thin parts of the sugar in this hive to see how many bees were down there.  They don't cover the top bars as completely as the North hive but there are still healthy numbers here, I think.

The South have had eaten more of the sugar than the middle hive, but not as much as the North hive.  There are a lot of bees visible here too.  All three hives seem to have good numbers and can be expected to make it through the rest of the Winter.

Honeybees and sapsuckers

The winter weather has finally broken and we have had some temperatures at the usual average levels around 50 or a little above.  I took some pictures at the hives yesterday as the bees were active.  Bees were flying and greeting me on the lane as I walked to get the mail and even were busing around me at the house 3/8 miles from the hive.

The north hive was very active at the bottom entrance with lots of bees in the air and on the bottom board trying to get in and out of the holes in the mouse guards.

The bottom entrance on the middle hive was also busy.

The bees were also using the top entrance to that hive.

The bottom entrance to the south hive was also very busy.

The top entrance on that hive was also jammed.  Perhaps this hive was busiest because it got more of the sun on its south wall.

I started pruning my fruit trees this weekend and in the process of inspecting them for that purpose noticed lots of holes in straight lines on my older Enterprise Apple tree.  From what I see on line, this damage was probably done by yellow bellied sapsuckers passing through on migration.

I took pictures from three sides of the trees and the holes seem to go all the way around.

I hope that this many holes doesn't girdle the tree and cause it to die.  I could not tell this early in the season how healthy it was but I should soon be able to tell as Spring doesn't seem far off.  We started daylight savings time today so I hope to do some work on pruning in the evenings.

March 1 Snowfall

March came in like a lion I guess, or maybe more like a snow leopard.  We got five or six inches of snow overnight.  There was no wind involved as can bee seen by the neat little piles on top of each fence post on the east fence of the garden.

The grapevines and supports are covered in snow as are the trees in teh forest behind.

Here is my classic "tractor in the snow" shot.  I tried to start it later to try to plow out the lane but wouldn't fire.

The west garden fence and snow covered field with woods behind.

We did manage to make a track to get in and out with the truck, so didn't have to call someone to plow it out.  This is the lane beside the garden.

The lane going on out to the road.

The beehives covered in snow.  The bottom entrances are all covered up here.  I went out on Monday to clear these off and they were already melted off as it got up in the 40s that day.  There were a few bees moving around in front of each hive then.

The bluebird house along the lane covered with snow.  The transmitter on the other side of the pole is for my driveway alarm.

I saw this large bird flying across the field just west of our property and land in a tree.  This is taken with a long telephoto lens so isn't very clear, but I am pretty sure this is an immature bald eagle with the head just starting to turn white.

Here's another shot with a little better view of the head.

Here a crow sits in the top of a soft maple tree on the west edge of our property.  The large buds on the tree promise that Spring isn't far off.  I'm ready.