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Front Range roller coaster - 2017

27K views 87 replies 21 participants last post by  shinbone 
#1 · (Edited)
Us folks along the Front Range having been riding our usual Springtime roller coaster of weather, with perhaps bigger hills than usual. First, we had an extended early warm-up, which induced the bees to start brooding 2 - 3 weeks early. Then we had an extended streak of normal weather, which meant night time lows in the 20's in the Denver area. Any small clusters that were tricked into laying a relatively large patch of brood by the warm weather had a good chance of being "caught-out," meaning freezing to death while trying to protect the beginning of their new crop of baby bees. I know l lost a hive this way.

But, we may have finally "turned the corner" with sunny days for the foreseeable future. The two videos, below, show the bees are packing in the pollen, which looks to be light beige (light brown?) in color.











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#2 ·
If its any consolation, we're riding the same roller coaster on the other side of the range. Two mornings ago I swept 6" of snow from my car. Today it is sunny and beautiful and almost 60. Expecting snow on Monday.

Do you have summer time heat problems from that black surface under your hives?
 
#3 ·
Do you have summer time heat problems from that black surface under your hives?
It gets cranking hot up there in July/August due to our high altitude sun. I put corrugated roofing panels on the hives to shield the sun, which seems to solve any heat problems the hives may have.
 
#5 ·
Yep it was massive swings...warm to the point the snakes were coming out, ran in to one in the yard picking up dead fall....a day later the night low was 15 f...
I was worried about the nucs, just got back from the yard... good new is they are all flying, bad news is the county just declared were I have them has infestation of invasive plants (pepper weed) and I have to move them to the other end of the property so the landowner can spray....should be fun..not
thinking I got lucky. Mine started brooding a few weeks after shinbones. likely being in a shady depression slowed them up compared to a black rooftop
 
#6 ·
I'm seeing massive orientation flights today. Bees are bringing In the same beige pollen that your are seeing shinbone, my neighborhood is full of Silver maples in full bloom and they seem to be working them pretty hard. I'm not sure how good of a nectar source they are, or if they are just good for pollen. I'm worried populations are going to build up too fast and the bees are going to eat themselves out of house and home when the heavy snow storms of March and April hit. You know we have to pay for all this warmth somehow.
 
#11 ·
Today in the fifties and bees flying up a storm. They were sitting on the edge of puddles in melting snow. They are crazy for water to liquify honey and sugar to feed to brood. There were so many flying they were menacing to some I am sure. This location is within a stones throw of a hunting dog trial. No casulties I know of.
 
#12 ·
Any of the more experienced front range beekeepers think that with all this unseasonably warm weather we are getting that swarm season is going to come early for us? A last minute work obligation is sending me to Amsterdam for 10 days right in the middle of April.(not the worst thing to ever happen to me) i am worried that early april is too early for the queen manipulations that i had planned to do with chopping two of the three hives up into as many queen castle compartments as i can and using grafted queen cells. i do not want them to swarm while im away. my understanding is that our typical swarm season is may -June. i have 6 frames of drawn out deep foundation to work with and tons of undrawn frames, maybe before i leave i should use the opening the sides of the brood nest method to get some extra frames drawn out and then commence with my plans when i return, with the added benefits of more wax to work with when it does come time. when is too soon to try to add a deep of mostly undrawn frames to each hive? i dont want to chill the brood, and if my bottom boards are any indication the bees are up into my mountain camp sugar pretty good at this point. advice?
 
#13 ·
I've seen swarms in April.
I think this year might be one of those early years. The bees are really gearing up for spring now.

So, with that in mind, check them for rapid build-up and look for drone brood and/or drones.
As soon as you see drones and if your bees are getting crowded you may want to think about doing vertical splits. Last year I did my Snelgrove-style splits on April 10th and 14th. Worked well, even though we had snowstorms the day after each split.

Otherwise use checkerboarding and reverse brood boxes, expand the brood nest and hope they don't swarm before you get back.

I'm thinking the bees may want to swarm in late April(maybe) to first week of May this year.
But in Colorado.......you never know. A few weeks of cold weather may slow them down a little.
 
#14 ·
I am no expert, but, judging by the volume of orientation flights I am seeing already, the bees are about 2-weeks ahead of normal schedule for brood build-up in my area.
 
#18 ·
This is my first winter and we have been in the upper 60's to low 70's and bees were bringing in pollen. Last weekend we went down to 9 deg Sat and Sun. Now the last 2 days have been in the low 60's and upper 50's. Next couple of days down to 8-11 at night 30 during the day. Now thats a roller coaster. Hope the bees can handle all of this.
 
#20 ·
rv.....
They have been doing it for thousands of years. If they are from good genetics, mites have not taken over, adequate ventilation provided, and the beekeeper didn't take all of their Fall honey...they will usually be just fine.
I guess this is what I am counting on since there is really nothing to be done about it anyway. It is in the back of my mind the dangers that some promote from early feeding, which happened naturaly this year, as being a thing that has the potential to set bees back.

But like the old serenity prayer goes, learn to accept the things that you can't change.

I will be looking for larva hauled out but admit that I am not really expecting any.
Cheers
gww
 
#23 ·
wow thanks for the heads up
there was a "come get the bees out of my tree" post with a picture of a swarm on CL....but being april 1st I ignored it, lol maby it was't a joke
guess its time to put up the swarm traps
 
#27 ·
I dunno Steve. In Louisville dandelions and ornamental fruit trees are in their full glory. The bees are going great, storing nectar and raising drones.
I haven't found any queen cells yet, but after this storm they may start to appear. It's time to use the double screens and get a few queens started.
We also had three hives go queenless this winter. First time in a long time. So the early season may give us a head start on replacing those deadouts with splits.
 
#28 ·
What a difference a couple miles make. A few weeks ago we were in Highlands Ranch and many of the fruit trees were in nearly full blossom. Down here the Dandies are just starting to show.

The Ornamental Crab now has it's first few full blossoms. Hopefully they didn't get frost bit. Another 3" of snow fell last night, to add to a very wet couple weeks (finally!). The snow is quickly melting in.

It's comforting to have low swarming bees. Did you guys see the link to Thorah Island Bees in the "Gentle Bees" thread?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUpApdL49Rc&feature=youtu.be&t=9m43s
 
#29 · (Edited)
"weather spank" in progress:

It was 27F at 5:00am at my house this morning. Got about 2" of snow overnight. This is addition to the 4" we received the night before. Supposed to be in the low 60's tomorrow, and the mid-70's on Saturday. Roller coaster, indeed.

My Carbapple trees were just about to enter into their full-bloom stage. I hope the snow and cold weather of the last two days hasn't ruined too much of the bloom. I definitely appreciate the moisture, but I hate to see the first major blossoms of the Spring take such a beating.



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