I checked the bees today. They had finished off the quart of their honey I had fed them last month so I took more down. They didn’t need it! I went ahead and left if for them because the weather will turn and bees frequently make through the winter but starve in the spring.
First, my bees are normally easy to work with, but today they were ridiculously laid back and happy. No one even buzzed me. I did get three stings on fingertips, but that was because I accidentally put my finger on a bee moving lids and frames, three times (slow learner here).
Last fall I thought they’d starve by December since they had eaten most of the honey they had stored in August. In January they were still alive so I started watching them more carefully. In February I put honey on to be sure they had food. One thing learned – during the cold of winter when they are huddling they don’t use much food. Once it warmed up and they started flying around I could see they were using up more of the honey I’d put on.
Today they had lots of nectar being made into honey, some honey in the combs (maybe just moved from the jar I put on), new brood (larvae), and lots of pollen. They had a little pollen in the hive last fall, but I was concerned if it would be enough to feed healthy brood. The bees are finding pollen somewhere because they had lots in the hive and I saw bees carrying pollen in.
I took the hive apart frame by frame, moved the queen and all frames with brood back down to the bottom box, then put the frames that had honey in them in the next box. I almost stopped there, but thought at the rate they seem to be bringing nectar in I’d better put the third box back on with mostly empty frames. Some frames had a little honey in them and if I had not put the third box on I would have leaned those frames up against a nearby tree and the bees would have moved it into the hive.
I checked with my bee mentor, Dick Crawford, to let him know how well they were doing. He said reports around the country are 65% loss. Locally some small scale hobbyists have lost all their hives, some 50%, and there are some hives that were not expected to survive (a late swarm, a late requeening) that came through fine. One orchard reported 50% loss of hives. Beekeepers, even if not “organically inclined” are great naturalists, keeping track of plants and seasons. Dick said we are three weeks ahead of normal.
I expect some comments about how much bee stings must hurt. They don’t hurt anywhere near as much as wasp stings. It stings for a moment, but it goes away quickly. Yesterday I very tardily thinned and pruned raspberries. My left hand fingers are full of raspberry prickers. I have scraped them with the back of the knife and gotten a lot of them out. Pulled more out with tweezers, but some are too small. (Haven’t figured out how I’m going to make those nice gloves useable again.) I am much more aware of the raspberry prickers than than the slight swelling from the bee stings. And that is nothing to complain about.
Anyway, I am psyched to have had such a good afternoon with the bees. And the afternoon followed a gorgeous Easter Sunrise service, church breakfast, children’s Easter activities (we borrowed a lamb from a neighbor and took it – the kids of all ages loved it), Easter musical, etc. Came home, ate, took a nap, then went down to the bees. Hope you also had a joyful Easter.
