[Mitch]

How are the flows doing in your area?Here for once the temps have been above normal for this time of year.The white dutch clover and the sweet clover are starting.It is 3or so weeks early this year.I am not sure if this is good or bad.My bees are still building up.
Bob

 

[AstroBee]

If you're like us, then its bad news. In our area spring was skipped - we went right from winter to summer-like temps. The result was a terrible honey season. In hives that had 20 frames of honey last year at this time now have only two frames. The bees just couldn't respond fast enough. At least that's my story.

 

[Ian]

It has been cool and wet here. Send some of that heat up this way. My hives are not building for this time of year. Dandilions have only peaked as of a few days ago, but no real bloom yet, ,. at least 2-3 weeks behind average!

Ian

 

[Jorge]

I can't say in general, but comparing my notes with last year (which was vey cold and damp almost the entire season), this year we are about 2 weeks ahead: locust is finishing, tulip tree just started and wild roses and wineberries are starting now too.

Can somebody tell me, woud this be considered the heavy nectar flow, or is that still about to come? In other words, which plant species could be considered a marker for the beginning of the main flow?

Thanks

Jorge

 

[Curry]

Jorge,

Here the marker for the main flow is tulip poplars in bloom. Our main flow is just coming to an end, but they'll still produce til July. We just had our bee club meeting the other night and it was pretty well agreed that this has been the best honey year in quite a while. But a friend of mine just North of us a half hour is having a poor year. It may be that he didn't get the rains that we got, or his bees were in bad shape, I don't know.

 

[Scot Mc Pherson]

I am not sure what nectar the bees are pulling in, but the one hive I have that is doing well is pulling in a great deal of nectar from something. Its regularly colored so I know its from a single crop and not a mishmash of nectar sources.

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Scot Mc Pherson
Foundationless Small Cell Top Bar Hives
BeeWiki: http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/beewiki/

 

[beekeeper39]

Our dutch white clover is just starting to bloom, but our spring is a couple weeks behind. This is my first year and the dandelions just got done blooming, so I don't know what the hives are currently pulling in, if anything. It's been really wet here the past week or so and it's going to be wet for another week. We should've had this weather during early April! It's been too wet for us to plant our alfalfa and sweet clover, so I hope the clover has enough time to be able to bloom.