Today was the warmest day we’ve had in quite some time, reaching the mid 50′s. All the hives were very active and there was more activity at the open fed pollen than I have seen so far this season. Apparently there was too much traffic at the bucket to satisfy some bees, so several hundred were working over the fresh pile of sawdust composting in the garden. Bees are know to work bird feeders and animal feed for the dust that collects there, but this was the first time I’ve seen any significant number working on sawdust. I’m not sure what value they can see in it. Shortly after adding a second bucket of open fed pollen substitute an placing additional substitute on the bucket lids, more than half the bees abandoned the sawdust pile in favor of the substitute. I saw a few bees nosing around the maple trees, but no significant pollen is coming in from them still.
