# How's your spring????



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Spring has been slow in coming this year. We had 17 inches of wet snow Sunday and Monday. More is forecast in a couple days without much warming. The moisture is great and when the weather breaks, we may have the mother of all fruit blooms!! I called yesterday and delayed my queen shipment a week and hope I don't have to postpone again. My bees will be in oranges for a couple more weeks before they get shipped home. I don't see that I will be able to get a semi in my pasture given all the snow that has to melt before the soil thaws and dries out so I'll be shuttling them out there for my annual splitting in a smaller vehicle. Extra work but the conditions are looking good for a strong start for the 2013 season. 


How's it looking in your summer spots? You cold and wet too Ian?


----------



## Gregg (Dec 22, 2003)

Yeah, Chip. Spring, what spring? My load was supposed to leave CA on Sunday, obviously that got delayed. Will be at least a couple of weeks. Hopefully the moisture will pay off.


----------



## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

Rain.Rain.little Sun...more rain coming. Snow forecasted for Fri with 22°F for the low. First load left CA this morning. Second load is leaving tomorrow. This WI weather should set the swarm urge back a little.lol I'm thinking when the weather finally breaks there should be several nectar/pollen sources that should start about the same time. The maples are just starting to bud here.


----------



## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Can't really complain so far. Weather has not been extreme, and now that there is a flow the bees have had good opportunities to go out and get it. Also, hives that were not as strong as I would have liked last fall have actually built up quite nicely - with a little help in the form of pollen sub. Swarm season is on though.


----------



## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

You are all welcome to send the rain to California, everytime i get off the main road a dust cloud follows me.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Bees still sit in storage! Running very late this spring. Going to start moving them out tomorrow night, lets hope warm weather prevails


----------



## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

LSPender said:


> You are all welcome to send the rain to California, everytime i get off the main road a dust cloud follows me.



I agree with Larry, Spring? We are still wondering where winter went.... thats if it ever came. The nectar flow is going to bomb hard shortly but I do have to declare that the weather for Almond bloom and every day since has been nothing bit a bonanza for queen and bee build up.


----------



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Spring??

March 10 was the first cleansing flight since December.
Monday was the first pollen day, and first day of 60 degrees since November 13...normal average is March 29.


----------



## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Your Maples blooming there Michael?

I noticed ours blooming this morning.


----------



## Grizbee (Sep 23, 2009)

what spring?


----------



## Grizbee (Sep 23, 2009)

Here in NW lower Michigan the first cleansing flight I can remember was this past monday April 15, and yesterday also. Now just waiting for the maple to pop,excellent ground moisture this season, and also good sugaring for the syrup guys... Nows its the bees turn on the maple

My niece said its been a nice winter this spring


----------



## rainesridgefarm (Sep 4, 2001)

The bees in MS look great. The bees in N.IL and S. WI looks like a 80 percent loss. Shipping them back north on May 10th if the weather here breaks. Lots of dead outs to fill up and most losses in the past month.


----------



## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

What spring is right!

Last cleansing fight here was exactly 6 months ago, Oct 16. Still had nothing above 3-4 C this spring.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

have you moved any out yet Allen? 

Im PLANNING on starting to move some out tonight, but as I type this I look outside to snow falling again!


----------



## TNTBEES (Apr 14, 2012)

Doesn't appear that we will have a spring this year. Snowed everyday for the past week. Lows around 14deg., highs in the low 30's. Packages sitting around all over the house waiting for Friday. Supposed to be 50. First week of May supposed to be in the 70's. so no spring.


----------



## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

We had cool and wet until 20 days ago the weather broke and we had anice run of weather for about 17 days. That has been followed by about 10 days of cooler and wetter. Maples started to bloom 2 weeks ago on friday. Today looks good for the bees. Dandelions are out. We are supposed to get more rain this weekend followed by what is supposed to be warmer weather and blue skies. All I know is flying weather allows bees to collect pollen and turn it into more bees. So far about half the nucs are on the ground. Next weeks promisedweather will allow us toget the rest of them done.


----------



## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

Ian

I still to far too much snow. Thinking early next week.


----------



## Keth Comollo (Nov 4, 2011)

Red maple just starting to bloom in the valleys around here. Sugar maples should be next. Nectar in the hives already and pollen going in the front door. I reversed every hive except one in the last two days. Tad early but my schedule dictated it. Looking good.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Allen Martens said:


> Ian
> 
> I still to far too much snow. Thinking early next week.


I hear ya,


----------



## beebreeder (Nov 24, 2009)

Hi All
Well from the UK the same answer, what spring, the bees are usually now on the dandelions and buildup is underway, instead we are still feeding fondant, patties etc, we get a couple of warmer days then rain and cold again, and this follows a terrible season last year, I think losses are going to be high over here.
Kev


----------



## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

Cleared the road to my staging yard at home today. Looks like that yard won't take long to melt if we ever get temperature greater than 2 C.


----------



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Allen Martens said:


> Cleared the road to my staging yard at home today. Looks like that yard won't take long to melt if we ever get temperature greater than 2 C.


Allen. We still have a pretty good frost seal with no signs of any seepage into the ground when we get a little melt. We were dry in the fall but early snow melted enough to seep in and froze hard over winter. Ice on the area lakes is still 3 feet thick so I'd guess the ground is frozen pretty deep too. When does your frost seal usually go out? Here, we're usually pretty well thawed by the first of April.


----------



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

beebreeder said:


> Hi All
> Well from the UK the same answer, what spring, the bees are usually now on the dandelions and buildup is underway, instead we are still feeding fondant, patties etc, we get a couple of warmer days then rain and cold again, and this follows a terrible season last year, I think losses are going to be high over here.
> Kev


Sounds like the weather pattern isn't just in North America. Hope the weather turns around and those dandelions start cranking out nectar! How's the moisture in the UK compared to last year?


----------



## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

We're usually thawed by the second week in April. This year, everything is still white with a foot or two of snow left. Heard today it was the latest spring in 141 years.

My home yard is a gravel ridge so there is never standing water. Even water from a midwinter melt seeps away very quickly. Very nice for getting into the beeyard in spring.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

not alot of frost in the ground this winter , no more than 18 inches


----------



## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

Too cold and to wet. Looking like a bad year for early queens.:ws:


----------



## beebreeder (Nov 24, 2009)

The spring is just not starting, this time last year we were onto double brood boxes, this year I have not even opened some of them just topping up the fondant to keep them going as there is little pollen around as the flowers are not out either


Chip Euliss said:


> Sounds like the weather pattern isn't just in North America. Hope the weather turns around and those dandelions start cranking out nectar! How's the moisture in the UK compared to last year?


----------



## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

oh man, I feel for you guys out on the praries. Here on the island, spring came a little early. Saw the first dandies already in early March, wowsers. I put supers on the bees in the holly farm 3 weeks ago, and the maples started blooming a couple days later. One of my hives is capping the first super, and putting nectar into the second. I'm hoping they get a few frames of that maple stuff capped over the next week. It'll be a bit of a chore to wind up the extractor for just a few frames, but I'm really curious about how maple honey will taste....


----------



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

grozzie2 said:


> oh man, I feel for you guys out on the praries. Here on the island, spring came a little early. Saw the first dandies already in early March, wowsers. I put supers on the bees in the holly farm 3 weeks ago, and the maples started blooming a couple days later. One of my hives is capping the first super, and putting nectar into the second. I'm hoping they get a few frames of that maple stuff capped over the next week. It'll be a bit of a chore to wind up the extractor for just a few frames, but I'm really curious about how maple honey will taste....


You just gave me spring fever!! Nothing like fresh-capped honey!


----------



## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Maple honey is very nice. People either love it or hate it. Not much in between. Nice yellow colour, slow to granulate.

Jean-Marc


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Im still walking down into my house off of a snow bank, I refuse to shovel it!!!! ****it, its April, its supposed to melt!


----------



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Ian said:


> Im still walking down into my house off of a snow bank, I refuse to shovel it!!!! ****it, its April, its supposed to melt!


That's the spirit! Just watched the weather-looks like we'll see it warming next week and the start of a drying pattern. In your forecast too?


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

ya, they keep promising next week
hope it comes


----------



## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

We got canola blooming already.... sorry to rub it in... they just planted about 80 acres next to my hives about 4 weeks ago too.... The other field is about 1 mile away, hopefully the girls find it, because they ate 2/3 a deep of honey already and barely any open nectar in the hives but they're ready for a 3rd deep anyway....


----------



## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

Ian said:


> ya, they keep promising next week
> hope it comes


We got a call from Beemaid saying queens will be here next week. Our hives are still under snow and we cannot get into yards.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

ya I pushed all my queen orders back to middle of May to the end of May
Just finished setting the last of the hives out, looks like 20-25% losses but the hives look awesome considering,


----------



## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

It hasn't been so bad here. This has become one of the better springs I can remember. We had at one point close to 2 weeks of sun at the beginning of april with temps getting up to 22 degrees celcius (70 ferenheit). and for the most part it's been equal sun and rain. Couple this with a 5% loss and the hives are all strong and healthy, It the makings of a honey surplus yet to come. We have another 2 weeks of good sunny hot weather coming up and the maple, dandilions, and cherries are all out in full bloom, it has me all excited. 

6 weeks ago I under supered my singles and a week ago i reversed them. quite a few of those new supers had 4-5 frames of brood already. My hives are in impressive shape. I will equalize again one more time before putting on the honey supers. After the spring flow I'll be making my nucs and get back up to 80 hives for the summer.


----------



## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

Ian said:


> ya I pushed all my queen orders back to middle of May to the end of May
> Just finished setting the last of the hives out, looks like 20-25% losses but the hives look awesome considering,


We pushed our way into one yard yesterday, the snow is still 3 to 4 feet deep in the yards. Ropes on our covers prevented us from checking most of the hives. They are all iced in. We were able to check 16 hives and only found one dead one. That was a pleasant surprise after the winter we are having.


----------



## irwin harlton (Jan 7, 2005)

Snow called for tomorrow the 1 st of MAY....... heavy snowfall, 25 cm , in Dauphin area, here a high of plus 2, average temp should be 18 celsuis....winter refuses to go away


----------



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Pretty wild weather but it's showing signs of breaking. Our frost is out of the ground and much of the snow is gone. We hit 70 F over the weekend and it was in the mid-50s today Our lakes are still frozen and it's the latest our lakes have been frozen in the historical record. Tomorrow is forecast to be in the 40s which is ok since my bees came in today and I didn't get them all spaced out tonight. They are calling for another warm up this weekend so I can get a queen bank set up for queens that start coming in next week. I'd guess our buffalo berry will be blooming within a week with the saskatoons a week or so after that. It will be interesting to see how the season plays out!


----------



## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

jean-marc said:


> Maple honey is very nice. People either love it or hate it. Not much in between. Nice yellow colour, slow to granulate.


I extracted a super of it last nite. It sure is a unique flavour, and I can see what you mean, love it or hate it.

Amazing the difference in spring between us here on the coast, and those on the other side of the rocks. Coquihalla was closed by a blizzard a few days ago, apparently 50cm of snow (2 feet for you folks down south). Talked to an aunt in saskatchewan yesterday, she was talking about a full on blizzard complete with road closures etc a few days ago. And here, maples are done, drones are flying, apples and arbutus in full bloom. The bees all survived, and are going gangbusters. One hive has the second super already half capped, the rest are all busy capping in the first one. There is a full week of sun in the forcast, and, I suspect I will be able to extract another half dozen supers when the holly trees are done. Not a bad start for only 6 hives, and half the supers went on as fresh plastic with no comb.


----------



## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

We had to plow our way into all the yards but spring finaly made it. All our bees are wintered outside so with the winter we had we were not sure what we would find. It was a nice surprise as our losses were just below 10 per cent. They are going hard after the feed these days. Hoping to see some pollen coming in from willow and poplar this week.


----------



## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

I really do feel for you folks on the prairies this spring. About an hour after I posted above about extracting the first super of spring honey, I walked outside and watched the hive beside the house swarm. I really didn't expect that so early from a hive that wintered as a nuc and moved into 10 frame gear just 2 weeks ago.


----------



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

We're thawing out but no bloom as yet. Splitting hives is tough due to robbing but I'm making some progress. You guys in prairie Canada getting any decent weather? Still snow but it's getting tougher to find!


----------



## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

We still have small patches of snow around, but the pollen from the poplars started coming in yesterday and today the bees were bring in a lot of poplar pollen.


----------



## Birds&Bees (Feb 26, 2009)

Last tuesday we had close to 40 cm of heavy wet snow blanket us and this was less than a week after the rest of the snow had finally melted. On Sunday the majority of the snow was gone again, we hived 80 Australian packages that evening then monday(yesterday) was 27 degrees. We saw some pollen coming in for the first time this year. Our wintered hives are weak, its been a long winter. Seeding will be delayed which is a good thing for us, I'm sure a lot of farmers are reconsidering their seeding options and are moving away from soybeans which have only recently been introduced into our area.


----------



## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

Last of the snow left my yard today.It will be a while before anyone is on the land here. There will be a lot of late seeding and I am sure lots of changes to cropping plans.


----------



## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Guys are getting tired cause of the 12 hour days. Phone keeps ringing for bees on pollination and for buying bees. Weather is great, bees are generally good to excellent. Feels great to be a beekeeper this year. Demand is very high for our services, honey prices are rising. Not sure that it could get much better. Will attempt to set some profits aside for the leaner days that are sure to follow at some point.

Jean-Marc


----------

