Apricots in bloom

The blossoms on my apricot trees burst into bloom yesterday and today -- very early.

The were all open by today.

It was a cloudy day but that didn't keep my bees in their hives.  Here one is gathering nectar.

Early signs of Spring

We have had a mild winter and are having an early Spring this year  Here are some crocuses blooming along our driveway.  I need to plant more of these.  They are a welcome first sign of Spring.

Purple crocuses are blooming next to our dog kennel -- well, it's a cat kennel now.

The leaf buds on the lilacs along the east garden fence are swelling and green.

These buds on my apricot trees seem to be about to burst open.  These are always my first fruit trees to bloom.

The buds on my plum trees are also showing a lot of green and swelling.

The bees again were active on this warm early Spring day.  Here bees are on the bottom entrance of the North hive.

Bees are also active at the top entrance of my North hive.

Bees are also flying at the bottom entrance of the middle hive.

And here are the bees on the bottom entrance of the South hive, showing that all three hives seem to remain active and healthy.  I hope to get into the tops of these hives on the next warm day in mid-March to see how their emergency sugar stores are holding out.

Purple finches

Purple finches have been a frequent visitor to my bird feeders this winter.  They have been present every winter, but there seem to be more this winter.  The second and fourth birds in this photo are goldfinches in winter plumage and the other three are purple finches, the male being in the middle.

Here is a close-up of a male purple finch.

And this is the female.

Bees flying in February

We have had several warm days when the bees could fly -- they come out if the temperatures get into the high 40s or low 50s F.  The were flying on February 11 while the last snowfall was still melting.

Here there are a few bees in the air in front of the North hive.

Another shot of the bottom entrance of the North hive, later in the day when it was warmer.  Lots of bees out.  The bees in this hive still tend to go in and out of the hive at the far Southern end of the bottom even though it is open all the way across.  They have been doing this since this hive was established from a swarm caught in the apiary three years ago.

This hive also has a top entrance in the Winter in the sugar box.  Here several bees are using and hovering around that entrance.

The middle hive also shows some activity early in the day.

Later in the day, the middle hive bottom entrance is quite busy.

The top entrance is also busy in the middle hive.

The South hive is busy too early in the day with snow still on the ground.

Later in the day, the South hive is also quite busy with hots of bees orienting in front of the hive.  This hive also has a top entrance but I haven't seen any bees using it this Winter.

The three hives viewed from the south, with my straw bale windbreak behind (to the West).  This is later in the day -- the snow is gone.

A return to beekeeping

 

It has been almost a year since I added a post to this blog.  A terrible family tragedy in early May left me many of my usual avocations for much of last year.  My bees were completely neglected from April to September.  I did manage to give them a treatment for mites late in October and get the hives winterized, with roofing felt wrapping, straw bales on the west and north sides and 16 pounds of sugar and quilt boxes in each hive.

The temperature got up in to the mid-50s today and all the hives were active.  Overall its been a fairly mild winter though we have had some bitter cold and some ice.

Here are some bees hovering around the top entrance of the north hive.

The bottom entrance was even more busy with bees in the air and clustered around the entrance.  I did forget to mention that I also put mouse guards on the front of each hive as can be seen here.  I also did not take any honey off of these hives last year and just left it on for the winter, so all of the hives should have lots of stores.

Here are bees around the top entrance of the middle hive.  This hive seemed to be the strongest through most of last summer and fall from my occasional observations of the outside.  This hive frequently had large numbers of bees on the outside of the hive.  However, I noticed what appeared to be a sudden drop in the number of bees on the outside of the hive late in October and fear that they may have swarmed very late in the season -- too late to properly re-queen due to the shortage of drones for mating at that time of year.  They do seem to be strong, so perhaps I was wrong.  Time will tell.

The bottom entrance of the middle hive was very busy with bees -- the most busy of the three hives.

Here is the bottom entrance of the south hive with lots of bees in the air and on the entrance.  I did not take a picture of the top entrance because there was no activity there.  As I recall, they never did use the top entrance of this hive last winter either.

I did notice several bees hovering over a pile of rotting straw that was about 30 feet behind the hives, with several bees crawling around on it.  I don't know what the attraction was, but they seemed to find something interesting there.

I did manage to put in a garden last year, with a large tomato bed, successful melon, pumpkin and watermelon patches and, for the first time, a full flower garden.   Here it lies dormant waiting for the coming Spring.

This is my tomato patch from last summer.  I don't usually clear the garden until March or April so the cages are still up.

The grapes were something that was completely ignored last year, with no pruning and little care.  The critters got all of the grapes as in years past.  I hope this year to work more on finding ways to preserve my crops from the animals.

A chance to check the hives

Temperatures climbed to 70 degrees today allowing me to check the emergency food stores in my three hives.  The bees were actively flying in all three hives.  This is the bottom entrance of the North hive showing lots of bees milling about the front.

A close shot shows the bees gathering on the front and coming in and out of the holes in the mouse guard.

Here a bee is caught on the wing returning to the hive.

I pulled off the quilt box on each hive to check the sugar stores.  The North hive had eaten through the sugar and eaten out quite a bit from the bottom causing a thin layer of the top of the sugar block to collapse onto the bottom of the sugar box.

A closer look shows how the sugar is eaten out from underneath.  I would estimate that the bees had eaten about 50% of the sugar in the box on the North hive.

The Middle hive was the most active of the three.  Here bees are in the air and crowding the bottom entrance.

Here bees return to the hive while others mill about the front.

An even closer shot shows numerous bees on the wing.  None of the bees, of course, have pollen on their legs as we are likely a month from the first maple pollen being available.

The sugar box on the Middle hive was more empty than the North hive, confirming my impression that this hive is the strongest of the three.

A closer shot shows how the sugar is being eaten from the bottom.  I suspect that 75% to 80% of the sugar has been consumed here.  I may need to add some sugar late in the Spring at this rate of consumption.

The South hive is noticeably weaker than the other two but still has several bees flying in warm weather.  I am concerned about the survival of this hive but optimistic as there are still quite a few bees there well past the mid-point of winter.

Some bees in flight and bees on the entrance of the South hive.

The sugar box on the South hive has been well eaten through and bees were working it and visible below.

Here bees are busily working on the sugar block.  They may have eaten 20% to 25% of the sugar in this box -- not nearly as much as the other hives but still a substantial amount of activity.  We still have several weeks of winter before the pollen and nectar flow starts and until I can get into the hive to see if it is queen right.  Still, I think there are enough bees to survive -- I hope so.

Bees flying in mid-winter

The temperatures got up in to the low 50s today which brought the bees out of all of the hives, doing some orientation flights hovering in front of the hives and going in and out of the hives.

Here bees land on the South hives.  This hive was probably the least active of the three, but was still quite active.

The top entrance of the South hive was also busy.

The middle hive was the most active of the three, with a considerable number of bees hovering in front appearing to do orientation flights, particularly when the sun was out.

The top entrance of the middle hive was also active, but most of the bees seemed to prefer the bottom entrance.

The bottom of the North hive was also active, favoring, as always, the far left side of the entrance.  Overall, I was quite happy to see this much activity mid-way through the winter, showing that all hives were still alive.  We do, though, have a long way to go before winter survival can be confirmed.