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I'm in North Texas, and this is my first winter beekeeping. I have two hives. It was warm over the weekend so I opened up one of my hives just to be nosy. Saw the queen, lots of bees, lots of honey, but no pollen to speak of. Is that okay? I've noticed the maple trees and a few other trees are starting to bud, so probably not long until thee is some pollen available, but I thought I'd check to see if you guys thought I should put out some pollen sub patties for them.
Thanks!
Well mine are finding some light yellowish green pollen off somethin. I have no idea what since we've had a month of hard freezing nights. See if a bee comes in every now and then with something in the pollen baskets. Mine don't have any stored to amount to anything.
It would not hurt to give them a patty at this time of the year. I have a small colony so I put in a patty since last December. Now they are getting stronger and saw them eating the patty yesterday on a hive check. So I would think they are hungry given so many bees and no pollens to eat. Also, put a piece of plastic underneath the patty because any particle that fell into the hive bottom will invite some moth. I have to clean up the hive bottom and picked out some moth worms. But maybe you don't have this problem so a small plastic not need to use.