[Snookie]

Hello

As usual I'm puzzled...All the talk about Summer Flow, exactly when/what is the normal flow dates for here in South Louisiana?

Thanks for your replies in advance:}

 

[xbeeman412]

Do You have Tallow trees in Your area? We are south of Houston and have LOTS of them here.

Our tallow is going to be by this weekend from the looks of it. The trees have large candles that are starting to drop over full of nectar.

 

[marshmasterpat]

Snookie - That is what I have been wondering. Not seeing any significant build up of honey until this weekend. Certainly no back filling of the brood nest. And I am not that far from you as a crow flies. But those ladies are a swarming out of here as fast as they can.

XBeeman - Thank you very much for that info. I am not seeing a lot of tallows making candles yet, but if you are seeing them in Galveston Co., then they are fixing to bust here in Jefferson and Chambers Co.. Maybe if we have a heavy tallow flow my ladies will rebuild after me missing the signs of a swarm about to go. But sure is dry right now.

 

[wombataholic]

I'm starting to see some of the tallows making candles near Baton Rouge, but other than that I haven't seen much as far as flows go this season. My hives have maybe 20% of one honey super drawn and filled so far. I was hoping for more.

 

[grozzie2]

As usual I'm puzzled...All the talk about Summer Flow, exactly when/what is the normal flow dates

I was puzzled by this in our first year too, really had no idea how to tell when a flow was on, or wasn't, or what it even was. Eentually we figured out how to tell by simply watching the blooms happening, and relating that to what we saw in the hive. But, I will admit to cheating somewhat too, I put a scale under a hive and log weight readings every 5 minutes during our second year, so we could tell what was happening in terms of weight changes.

We moved to a new area last fall, so, the learning process starts over. Spring has finally sprung, so I put the scale back under a hive and in time it'll tell me exactly when our colonies are bringing in nectar, and how much. As the plot shows, the coloniy is essentially holding it's own right now, but no appreciable gains over the last week. But there is a LOT of brood getting ready to emerge in this colony, so I expect this to start changing soon.

When the weight starts going up daily, the flow is on.

 

[Snookie]

Hummmmm I'm hoping to get a from to from date i.e. suggestion or guess so I know what to expect PLEASE...

 

[treeWinder]

"I put a scale under a hive and log weight readings every 5 minutes during our second year, so we could tell what was happening in terms of weight changes."

If you don't mind me asking, what weight/scale/recording system are using?
thankjs

 

[grozzie2]

If you don't mind me asking, what weight/scale/recording system are using?
thankjs

I'm using this scale

http://www.lowcostscalescanada.com/MY-WEIGH-HD-300-HEAVY-DUTY-SHIPPING-SCALE-SC-HD-300.htm

It's under the hive, then all the cables go into a box beside it, currently in one of my surplus 5 frame nucs. Also in that box is a little computer running linux, which has a wifi link back to my network. A cron script runs every 5 minutes that reads the scale, then writes the raw reading into a database in a server in my closet. The scale is somewhat temperature sensative, but I developed a set of equations a couple years ago to compensate for temperature. I have a weather station running that's logging outside temps every 5 minutes as well, to the same database. The plot I posted is temperature adjusted data.

It's not lab accurate by any means, but, once the nectar starts flowing, there is no mistaking it in the scale data. Right now, they are burning it up as fast as it comes in, so I see a daily dip in the morning when the foragers head out, then it rebounds later in the day when they come home. Some days a small gain, some a small loss. But populations are growing fast now, so, I do expect to see the colonies starting to put on weight soon. By having one on a scale, I dont have to guess as to when that's happening, we will know right away.

I kinda kludged this setup together out of stuff I mostly had kicking around already. If I was going to do it again, from scratch, I'll probably put some effort into finding a scale that's less sensative to temperature swings. Particularly in the spring when weights aren't changing a lot, and temperature goes thru large swings, this one acts more like a thermometer than a scale, until one does a lot of math and figures out how to correct for temp. I'm sure my corrections are not spot on, but, they are 'good enough' for what I want right now. We are in a new location, and I really want to start correlating nectar flow with what's blooming around here.

 

[treeWinder]

Thanks, appreciate the info. Although you lost me after putting the scale under the hive.....:scratch:

 

[marshmasterpat]

Snookie - I am in the Beaumont area and checked my furtherest bee yard from the house (1 hive about 3/5 of a mile away). It is putting away honey. I am running all mediums and the top one has put on about 15 to 20 pounds over the last two weeks. So something is starting. They have also swarmed and appear to have a new queen laying. Or the old one is crashing. :scratch: Not sure is going on, but there was not a lot of eggs or older larvae, just lots of capped brood about to hatch.

So hang in there with this rain, things might get better for a few weeks.

 

[Snookie]

Groovy......So I assume the "FLOW" in my area starts around May 15th then last for a few weeks then:}

Thanks for the more definite time frame answer.

 

[Gilligan]

Hey man... same here.

Tallows are pointing up right now (well, as of yesterday when the baby and I went pick black berries). Hoping to see some significant changes in the next week or so!

 

[CajunBee]

Here's some info that may help.

http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sites/ScaleHiveSite.php?SiteID=LA001

Same here with low flow and Tallows coming on. Been very dry this spring. We never got our "Mayhaw flood" this year.