Not the clearest of photos, but, today we have pollen coming in at all the hives. A few bees coming home with pollen sacs full of yellow pollen, and a few more with a red pollen.
At the local bee club meeting there were many folks commenting on the ‘early blooms’ this year, but, i dont see anything running much earlier than in years gone past. A look at the Pieris Japonica hedge we have in front of the house, which is one of our earliest blooms that the bees tend to be ‘all over’ while it’s open, the flowers are getting close, but not yet open. Maybe if we have a couple days of sunshine they will start to open up, can see the petals pushing on a few of the buds. But is it early ? Last year we saw the first flowers on Feb 28, today it’s Feb 24, they flowers are not open, but look like they will open up any day now.  It’s still 4 weeks till we expect the first dandelion to bloom, so, winter is far from over in terms of bee survival. Yellow and Red Pollen
Not the clearest of photos, but, today we have pollen coming in at all the hives. A few bees coming home with pollen sacs full of yellow pollen, and a few more with a red pollen.
At the local bee club meeting there were many folks commenting on the ‘early blooms’ this year, but, i dont see anything running much earlier than in years gone past. A look at the Pieris Japonica hedge we have in front of the house, which is one of our earliest blooms that the bees tend to be ‘all over’ while it’s open, the flowers are getting close, but not yet open. Maybe if we have a couple days of sunshine they will start to open up, can see the petals pushing on a few of the buds. But is it early ? Last year we saw the first flowers on Feb 28, today it’s Feb 24, they flowers are not open, but look like they will open up any day now.  It’s still 4 weeks till we expect the first dandelion to bloom, so, winter is far from over in terms of bee survival.