What is wrong with this picture? April and today at 41 degrees, was the warmest day in the past 6. 4 of those days I’ve awoke to find snow on the ground. (I had a picture of hives in the snow take just yesterday, but it was on a new camera phone and I just couldn’t get it working right).
Delays: Was a beautiful 2 weeks before this past week. highs in the 60′s and 70′s with lows only in the upper 40′s. But as of last week everyting was put on hold. We were to begin grafting last week (can’t do that when the high’s barely got to freezing), and the package bees that were to be delivered were delayed due to bad weather in the Rocky Mountains. They didn’t want to chance them getting delayed due to road closings. We’ll have to keep a close watch on our weather, it’s finally starting to look up this weekend (at least I hope this is the last snow I see this season).
Chilled Brood: The couple of warm weeks did give the hives a much needed boost. They were bringing in nectar and pollen with no end in sight and the willows had just bloomed and were literally buzzing just before the cold front blew in. Unfortunately though I think I’ll find a lot of chilled brood in the hives once it warms up. In the warm spell they simply started raising more brood than they could keep warm once it got cold again. The scene in my observation hive paints a sad picture. Even with the hive indoors, the bees weren’t able to keep 1/4 to 1/3 of the brood warm and there is noticeably stressed and decaying brood where they weren’t able to cover it. The hives still should recover, they’ll just have lost another week or so.
