My bees are out forging for over 14 hours  now. The honey flow is strong although general consensus is that locus trees did not bloom much, if at all, this year. Locus bloom really boost the flow. All manner of wild flowers are blooming. May in this area was one of the wettest on record with measurable precipitation falling on more than 21 days.  Paired with a cold and wet April bees got a slow start.

Nucs made mid-April are doing well. Most have good brood patterns and are well supplied with pollen and nectar.  One hive appeared to not have a queen after I made nucs from it, I figured I moved the queen. Several weeks went by and I got nervous. I added a queen following the manual release in three days standard process and waited almost two weeks to check for brood. I found capped brood, larva and eggs. I don’t know if the new queen got started on day one out of the cage or if there was a queen in the works. The new queen was marked so I’ll check back to see if I miss judged.

People are looking forward to extracting, bottling and related processing activities. I’m adding supers under the filled ones this year which has done well. Foundation has been quickly drawn and filled.

Spring in the bee yard!