Finally…. The dandelions and pear trees have started blooming. A good sign that spring may finally be here to stay. You can see the large load of pollen this bee has already collected on her back legs.
April has generally been cold and wet seriously limiting the number of days that it’s been possible to do spring inspections, reverse hive bodies and make splits for mating nucs. While it’s only 55F right now, this weekend is suppose to be very warm so hopefully a lot of bee work can be caught up.
The picture below shows a few of the mating nucs that were setup last Friday. I ended up having to introduce virgins into the nucs because the cold weather earlier in the week didn’t allow for setting up nucs before the queens were to emerge from the cells. They were released from their cages yesterday and most were accepted. With some luck they may even make mating flights this weekend when it’s suppose to be up to 80F, if it doesn’t get too windy.
