# Since 1980 this is the worst April Non-flow I have every seen...



## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

Since the last of the maples a vast majority of my hives are stuck in early March population size and very very low stores. I have bees in Kingston Tn and it looks like the late freezing temps into the low 20 just knocked out the early tulip popular flow. And on top of that the wet weather and no sunshine has stopped the nectar flow from the mustard, ground weed species, mysterious redbuds and other normal bloomers. No queen cells, no new brood in the russian and carni hives, and robbing which is unheard of in spring. I'm in the middle of a move to the Carter Lake area in north Georgia and all this feeding is driving me crazy.

I also have have bees in Trion Ga and in Calhoun Ga and they are doing ok with a good early spring flow. Lots of bees and booming stores. Lots of queen cells which have been put to good use in splits. This is the strangest year I have ever seen in Tn.

If you have bees in East Tn you better poke around through all your boxes and start feeding instead of just throwing the supers on top.


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## Jayoung21 (Jun 22, 2010)

First i gotta say, I love the name! It's great... to be... a Tennessee Vol! I feel your pain out here in West Tn. This rain is really hurting. Overwintered nucs aren't building and mating flights just aren't happening. Not to mention I am almost 4 weeks behind getting my corn crop in. ( I'm in corn research)


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

not any better in the saint Lawrence valley of northern ny.. it snowed yesterday and today, off and on during the day. not much of any on the ground but enough wind so it was sideways snow. only one nice day since October. another 10 days bellow average temperatures expected. this is getting old.


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## e-spice (Sep 21, 2013)

I'm in Knoxville, when in the peak spring flow here? I thought I was having a pretty decent flow right now, but I'm only a second year beekeeper.


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## keswickb (Jun 8, 2012)

Not far from you,just east a bit.I have some flow here.


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

Really... The spring has been great for the most part here in Louisville. Hives are booming. The cold spell this weak has slowed them down, but still seeing lots of nectar coming in. Luckily we only got a very lite frost last night, one of the advantages of urban beekeeping i suppose.


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## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

A buddy of mine caught a swarm in one of his new swarm boxes that was out for only 3 days here. 

We came out of winter full blaze and plenty of stuff started blooming. It has been cool and wet, but my hives are overflowing with bees. I am going to start splitting this week when the sun pops out Sunday for a few days.


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## TalonRedding (Jul 19, 2013)

Tell me about it. It's the same way here UT. Two weeks ago the bees were booming and bursting at the seems with plenty of nectar and plenty of pollen. Populations were going gangbusters. Now, after a virtual solid week and a half of rain and cloudy weather, nothing is coming in. I went through mine a few days ago, and they were completely depleted of pollen stores and had stopped feeding larvae. It's crazy what can happen in a weeks time! Needless to say, I fed the bees and they went straight to it. Folks in TN better be looking at their pollen and nectar storage. This spring is not looking good at all right now.


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## scituatema (Aug 30, 2014)

If you have Italians, how do they do?





UTvolshype said:


> Since the last of the maples a vast majority of my hives are stuck in early March population size and very very low stores. I have bees in Kingston Tn and it looks like the late freezing temps into the low 20 just knocked out the early tulip popular flow. And on top of that the wet weather and no sunshine has stopped the nectar flow from the mustard, ground weed species, mysterious redbuds and other normal bloomers. No queen cells, no new brood in the russian and carni hives, and robbing which is unheard of in spring. I'm in the middle of a move to the Carter Lake area in north Georgia and all this feeding is driving me crazy.
> 
> I also have have bees in Trion Ga and in Calhoun Ga and they are doing ok with a good early spring flow. Lots of bees and booming stores. Lots of queen cells which have been put to good use in splits. This is the strangest year I have ever seen in Tn.
> 
> If you have bees in East Tn you better poke around through all your boxes and start feeding instead of just throwing the supers on top.


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## liljake83 (Jul 2, 2013)

Try making honey in the drought in california


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## BackYardPhenomena (Jul 11, 2012)

It was awesome down here for about a month. Bees weren't ready though and numbers were high enough to capitalize. 

It's been a summer dearth in the passed to weeks-- boom to bust.


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## jms86233 (Mar 18, 2015)

Here in my neck of the woods western ny maples and pussy willows gave almost nothing to the bees so far maybe a part of a day I had guys north of me bringing in pollen weeks ago and my pussy willows hadn't even started popping out the snow cold rain wind it's horrible cant hive packaged bees syrup even if I heat it up it only stays warm a half hour thank goodness I installed them on mostly drawn comb and only 3 plastic frames


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## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

scituatema said:


> If you have Italians, how do they do?


I keep most of my italians in Georgia which are doing very well. In Tn, it's surprising how much better the italians/mutts are doing compared to the russians & carnis. They had more stores to run through and they kept on generating brood during the past month. More rain today so it's feeding time again.


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## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

In a normal year it's starts around April 20th and runs to mid-June. I pull the honey on July 4th weekend.


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## rkereid (Dec 20, 2009)

UT- I'm east of you in the mts of VA. We had almost a week of nectar coming in before the cool wet weather started about a week ago. At that time we had early redbud bloom and the two full size scale hives were going up 5 to 6 lbs per day. Since the rain and cool weather returned they are going down a lb a day. I am adding partial honey frames to all the splits that I have just started making. Tulip Poplar for us should be one to two weeks away. That's our biggest flow so I'm hoping the weather turns around by then. The over wintered nucs are the biggest feeding concern for me right now.

Also water foraging went up steeply with the cool weather. Tells me there's a lot of stored honey being consumed in the hives.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

It is snowing....................geez

I watched the bees swarming my pond bog yesterday. 100's flying in and out getting water. Cold windy, peach red buds bloomed, not one bee near them winds have been in the 30mph range for the last few days, temps in the mid 40's during the day. Poor bees. I put capped honey frames in all of the bigger hives, in the package and small split we are feeding sugar water.


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

Down here in Chattanooga I have hives on and off the mountain only about 20 min from each other and I have had great build up and pollen stores but my hives off the mountain haven't drawn a single super frame yet and my hives on the mountain have the first super half drawn....wierd....I would figure the higher elevation would be a little behind mine at lower elevation due to the lower mtn temps


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## TalonRedding (Jul 19, 2013)

Pathfinder said:


> Down here in Chattanooga I have hives on and off the mountain only about 20 min from each other and I have had great build up and pollen stores but my hives off the mountain haven't drawn a single super frame yet and my hives on the mountain have the first super half drawn....wierd....I would figure the higher elevation would be a little behind mine at lower elevation due to the lower mtn temps


When was the last time you fully inspected them and what did their food stores look like (both nectar and pollen)?


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

mathesonequip said:


> not any better in the saint Lawrence valley of northern ny.. it snowed yesterday and today, off and on during the day. not much of any on the ground but enough wind so it was sideways snow. only one nice day since October. another 10 days bellow average temperatures expected. this is getting old.


Same here and it sure is getting old. Not one dandelion in sight and pussy willows are about done with only a couple of good flying days. I almost lost it when it started snowing again.


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

Inspected them yesterday. Plenty of nectar and pollen on the hives off the mountain and pollen and capped stores on the hives on the mOuntain.


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## popeye (Apr 21, 2013)

I live a mile from Reelfoot Lake maybe 30 from Martin,Tn. My hives were on borderline stores just keeping up with brood. I'm new third year with five hives. 
I've been around the world when in merchant marine. The weather has been like London and Seattle here. Anyway the tulip popular and locust have just started blooming here in the nick of time! Cloudy again bit maybe no rain for three days. Feel sorry for the farmers. Hardly any corn planted.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Similar in middle TN - there was so much maple nectar I was worried about early swarming, but now starvation is a real possibility. My bees have been foraging between rain, but not bringing in enough to stay ahead.

On the upside the ten day forecast is looking a bit better. Crossing my fingers.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

THIS is the gloomiest thread I have ever read in my life. Here in the high desert we are four inches of rain behind and i am rejoicing over the second drizzly day in a row. At least when your rain stops and the Sun comes out things will grow. Without water NOTHING happens.


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## nhoyt (Aug 26, 2013)

I am in western mass and the weather is crushing my hive. I had about 80 lbs of honey from a deadout butI have only seen them flying 2 days out of 10. I did see some pollen going in but 8 days no flying I am giving it some serious thought to feed them.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

The lack of dandelions is really weird. I don't really track such things, but last year, the silver maple next to the house bloomed on April 12 and the bees only had part of a day on it. This year, April 14..at least 4 days of visible foraging.
I have noticed bees in the yard getting water in the mornings (right now) even though it is only about 45 degrees.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Last year dandelions were in good bloom on April 20, 2013 they were in bloom on the 26th. "normal" is around the 15th to the 20th. We're pretty far behind here.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

Full bloom is one thing...I haven't seen a single odd one.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

nothing much in bloom, the bees are not flying, the fields barely have the slightest shade of green. looks like a cold first part of march.


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## jhinshaw (Aug 14, 2014)

Im in Johnson City TN and this thread is making me paranoid. We've had about a week and a half of rain off and on and a few low 30 degree nights but I figured the girls would be fine because they were booming when I checked early April. Now I'm convinced they're starving... :ws: 

Definitely going to pop them open Monday I guess. Next week we're showing mid-60s to low 70s and no rain so hopefully we can pick back up!


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## michkel (Dec 1, 2012)

liljake83 said:


> Try making honey in the drought in california


Last year was hard, the blackberries didn't even do well here. I'm hoping for a better honey harvest this year. We don't have much snow, but at least we've had a good amount of rain. Fingers crossed.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

deknow said:


> Full bloom is one thing...I haven't seen a single odd one.


me either


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## Matt903 (Apr 8, 2013)

Just goes to show you how local beekeeping really is. I am 60 miles East of you UT. I have plenty of pollen, but not much nectar coming in. Odd. I do think though, that May and June will be good months. This kind of happened last year remember? Rainy April, and then May and June were awesome.


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## NCbeek (Mar 23, 2011)

I have the exact opposite situation here. Everything blooming and hives have more stores before the main part of the flow than I extracted all of last year. Blackberry in full bloom, more clover and dandelion than ever. Just waiting on the privet and chestnut to bloom. Plenty of rain, but lots of sun too. Thought we would be behind due to the long cold winter but things have exploded. With a split and several swarms, have jumped from 8 to 13 hives already. Guess I'm just rubbing it in, but having a really good year so far.


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

Same issue here, had to reduce the amount of comb in the hive to keep the wax moths/hive beetles under control. Colony size is way behind last year, but they are finally brooding up after I fed them a couple gallons of syrup in the last few weeks. 

Screwy spring, again. Usually thinking splits at this point, but not without a full hive of brood!

Looks like it's gonna stay cool here for another week or two, I'll have to watch and may put a feeder back on. Some stores and lots of pollen going in, so maybe not, very irritating to have to think of feeding when I should be in the first part of the main flow! Makes me worry about honey crop at this point, not enough bees.

Already getting reports of swarms, too, so might be just my hive.

Peter


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

psfred said:


> Already getting reports of swarms, too, so might be just my hive.


I think so. I've made 15qty 2 frame nucs of solid brood frames with 2-3 frames of bees shooken in 2 weeks ago. I have a few slow or dud hives, but most of them are doing very well. Early spring was great here, very warm tons of forage to build up on. 

I havn't needed to feed any hives. The only crappy part is this cold weather hit right when my queens were suppose to mate this week. We've had 1 good day yesterday and a decent day before so im thinking they got out


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## nhoyt (Aug 26, 2013)

No sooner do i write on this thread about my bees not flying a lot do i go out and see them flying -_- However they do not seem to bring in any pollen or at least i cant see any pollen unless it is dark colored pollen. Also they seem to be acting weird i saw one on the ground rubbing its back with its legs and saw a few at the entrance looking a little disoriented.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

deknow said:


> Full bloom is one thing...I haven't seen a single odd one.


I've seen the greens coming up, didn't dare dig them as they may be the only ones around.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

just got back from BJ's bought 200lbs of sugar:applause:

now if I don't get stuck getting the feeders and sugar into the yards.

also for any of you N.Y. beeks that are hefting your hives thinking they are heavy, I pulled a bunch of bottom deeps to clean up and many felt like they were full of honey,
most of the frames were full of water. never seen that b/4 and I ventilate more than most, more in the windy yards than those that are sheltered, I suspect the snow turned to ice in the bottom boxes, but not really sure as I have never seen this b/4.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

nhoyt said:


> No sooner do i write on this thread about my bees not flying a lot do i go out and see them flying -_- However they do not seem to bring in any pollen or at least i cant see any pollen unless it is dark colored pollen. Also they seem to be acting weird i saw one on the ground rubbing its back with its legs and saw a few at the entrance looking a little disoriented.


Had bees flying this afternoon when I put more patties and sugar on them. Many were bringing back pollen. Your red maples and willows should be blooming there.


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## Huntingstoneboy (Feb 10, 2013)

wildbranch2007 said:


> just got back from BJ's bought 200lbs of sugar:applause:
> 
> now if I don't get stuck getting the feeders and sugar into the yards.
> 
> ...


Seen this also this year....have been shaking water from frames. This is my 3rd year so didn't realize it was not normal. I also run upper entrance with plenty ventilation.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

wildbranch2007 said:


> I suspect the snow turned to ice in the bottom boxes, but not really sure as I have never seen this b/4.


When I went into my hive a couple of weeks ago I was perplexed by the amount of water in the bottom box. It was in the cells because I shook some out. I know it wasn't nectar. I attributed it to the solid bottom board I have on this hive but now I am thinking. Do you think the bees would store water in the cells?


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## Dave1958 (Mar 25, 2013)

I had been feeding dry sugar/ pollen in western KY( west of KY lake). I took this off today as I was seeing weevil in it. They have some stores, but nothing is blooming. BlackBerry buds are swelling, and I've seen no black locusts or tulip poplar bloom which should be in full now. We've had rain for so long the ground stinks, and corn should be in ground by May 10, and I've seen no corn planted or gardens broke or tilled.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

rkereid said:


> UT-
> 
> Also water foraging went up steeply with the cool weather. Tells me there's a lot of stored honey being consumed in the hives.


I didn't know the two were related. I always see bees in my pond bog, in the small ponds, stream etc drinking. But have never seen a crowd of bees like this all day long in drinking the water.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

Acebird said:


> When I went into my hive a couple of weeks ago I was perplexed by the amount of water in the bottom box. It was in the cells because I shook some out. I know it wasn't nectar. I attributed it to the solid bottom board I have on this hive but now I am thinking. Do you think the bees would store water in the cells?


when I was pulling the boxes the bees had not been flying yet, I found it on solid and screened bottom boards but only in some hives, some hives alive some dead, found it on hives tipped forward. here is an example of a live hive bottom box, right hand most frame solid honey, next frame to left mixed pollen open cells empty, next frame to left so third frame from right had been honey that was eaten but still had crystal's in the cell's. 100% water not nectar, now this hive is a breeder queen so I had a extra bottom board blocking the wind from coming into the entrance. So things I can eliminate, the water didn't come in the side of the hive as the second frame would have had water in it, any water on the bb would have gone through the closed off screen, the bees hadn't been flying so they didn't bring it in, I did notice(not on this hive) but in Feb when I popped a couple of tops that there was frost on the outside of all 4 sides of the hives, but none on the inner cover or outer cover, so I know I had enough ventilation. the hive 8 inches beside it no water. other hives in other apiaries some had the entire bottom box full of water? no way the bees would fill the entire box with water, could have been undried nectar from the fall, except it wasn't there when I medicated and set them up for winter. All of these hives were buried under snow for months, some with the tops that you could see, so one possibility would be that they had poor air flow and with the temp never getting above 10 degrees that frost accumulated and eventually melted but how it got in the frames, unless the crystal's absorbed the water because the humidity was high is my only assumption. Other people in Ny that have checked there hives have also seen the same thing. now my one yard that I wrap didn't have the same problem, so just one of those mysteries in life, didn't affect overwintering, just makes trying to know if they have enough food for the next couple of weeks.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

wildbranch2007 said:


> so just one of those mysteries in life,


I think there are a lot of mysteries we don't know in a bee's life.


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## rkereid (Dec 20, 2009)

missybee said:


> I didn't know the two were related. I always see bees in my pond bog, in the small ponds, stream etc drinking. But have never seen a crowd of bees like this all day long in drinking the water.
> 
> View attachment 17538


Water foraging is at a high level in the early spring partly because they're diluting honey for feed. When the nectar flows kick in the water foraging drops off sharply. I assume the thinner nectar supplies their water needs. It's noticeable to me because for several years I've had a constantly dripping hose where a large number of bees are focused on water collection. The numbers go up and down through the season based on needs.


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## sterling (Nov 14, 2013)

David LaFerney said:


> Similar in middle TN - there was so much maple nectar I was worried about early swarming, but now starvation is a real possibility. My bees have been foraging between rain, but not bringing in enough to stay ahead.
> 
> On the upside the ten day forecast is looking a bit better. Crossing my fingers.


At least you got maples. here in Mt Juliet our early maples froze out. Everytime something starts blooming here it rains and washes it out. I put supers on some hives and the bees haven't even gone into them to clean em up. And very little white wax in any.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

sterling said:


> At least you got maples. here in Mt Juliet our early maples froze out. Everytime something starts blooming here it rains and washes it out. I put supers on some hives and the bees haven't even gone into them to clean em up. And very little white wax in any.


Without the good maple flow my bees would be in poor shape unless I had fed an awful lot.

I'm also only seeing a small amt of wax production, but blackberry and white clover are just starting to bloom so maybe it will turn around. I'm seeing places where there should be open brood - in the center of frames of emerging brood - where it has either been cleaned out or the queen has curtailed laying. Not what you want in late April. It could still be alright, but forage needs to get better soon.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

I was starting to think it was just me . . . 

Tulip Poplars usually start blooming around April 1 for me. It's been cold, so I expected them about a week late. Three weeks ago I had all my populations up where they needed to be, first round of supers went on, and I waited. A week later, they started to pull some nectar in. Some hives better than others, but no hive just packing the nectar in. For those that were bringing it in, I added another super. Last week, they appeared to stall out. Populations increased, but stores stayed constant from the week before. Just checked on them today, and they've gone backwards. Fewer stores than the week before. Some started pulling out drone brood and leaving it on the bottom board. Not a good sign. Tulip Poplar is my main honey source, and it usually only stays in bloom for 30 days max. I haven't seen them, but I've heard others in the area say they saw some blooms three weeks ago.

Looks like the rainy, cool weather may screw me over this year. I just hope I walk away with 50% of last year's crop at the worst, and not 0%.


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## Knobs (Sep 20, 2014)

Just north of Louisville Kentucky here. My hives were doing great until 2 weeks ago. In fact they were back filling the brood area and preparing to swarm. I was actually removing full frames of nectar and pollen and replacing them with bare comb to keep them from swarming. All that stopped two weeks ago with constant rain and cold temperatures. The bees are searching for water. They can find pollen but no nectar. The redbuds are now leafing out so their flow has stopped. Tulip Poplars are still at least 2 to 3 weeks weeks away from blooming. To makes things even worse the bees have actually starting robbing the weaker hives. I have given in and started to feed. Its so weird to be feeding a hive that you were just steel frames of nectar from 2 weeks ago but that is the reality here. I went to a class in Bedford this weekend. I talked to a big commercial beekeeper. He is having problems making splits right now. He has lots of brood/bees but almost no frames of honey to make splits with. Queen rearing appears to also be 2 to 4 weeks behind normal. This spring started out good but between the rain and cold its turned into a terrble spring.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

And like turning on a faucet the nectar starts flowing again... At least in my yard it has. Hopefully the little dearth will just be a speed bump. Cross your fingers.


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## TalonRedding (Jul 19, 2013)

David LaFerney said:


> And like turning on a faucet the nectar starts flowing again... At least in my yard it has. Hopefully the little dearth will just be a speed bump. Cross your fingers.


Same here


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## nhoyt (Aug 26, 2013)

It is amazing what a day of full sunshine will do to a cooped up hive.


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## G3farms (Jun 13, 2009)

I'm in west Knoxville and mine started out very slow also. Pulled out 4 - five gallon buckets of cut out combs and they were having a feast on it, they have really slowed down on robbing the honey out of it and are now bringing in the pollen like crazy. I did notice the first blackberry blooms opening up today. The nectar will be coming in again but rain is scheduled for the next two days.


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## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

That good smell is back and the girls are no longer sucking down sugar water.


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## sterling (Nov 14, 2013)

I check a few hives today and they are filling the supers with necter and drawing new wax. Sunshine sure makes a difference. Now I need to get busy and put on more supers.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Black locust are blooming here, and the really good thing is that it looks like (to me) that poplar isn't going to pop too soon - so for a change the 2 best flows might not happen all at the same time.

A few days sure can make a difference.


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## j.kuder (Dec 5, 2010)

David LaFerney said:


> Black locust are blooming here, and the really good thing is that it looks like (to me) that poplar isn't going to pop too soon - so for a change the 2 best flows might not happen all at the same time.
> 
> A few days sure can make a difference.


 I,m not expecting tulip poplar till may. Last year it didn't bloom till near the end of may. I was north west Tenn. By reel foot last memorial day and tulip poplar was still blooming there. Yea all my carni. Mixes have been having a hard time gettin goin. But my Italian mixes are doin good glad I saved a lot of honey from last year. I think carni queens shut down early last fall because we had almost no fall flow. Left clusters small for winter . Cold early spring clusters to small to start early brood rearing.


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## Ronnie Elliott (Mar 24, 2004)

Up in Dallas, Tx., 110miles NW of where I am, they had the lowest record temperature on record since the 1931 last week, and have already had 26-inches of rain this year. I guess were out of the drought, a couple of my mature trees are falling over at the farm from all the wet weather.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

We have received 1.25 inches of rain in the month of April, the storms have all missed our house. It has been cold and very windy.

I am thinking of dragging out hoses to water my wildflower fields. 

The bees are doing good though, drawing wax on our new foundation (we are drawn wax poor) brooding up like crazy, getting nectar from somewhere.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Saw my first dandelion yesterday in a sheltered south facing yard. I expect we'll finally get full bloom next week when it's finally going to hit 70°


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Privet has just opened here in SC. Now, if it would just stop raining. Almost every other day it rains ...........


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

the very first pollen finally came in yesterday, close to a month late. quite yellow, daffodils somewhere? still not a single flower to be seen.


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## skidmld (Jul 15, 2004)

Here in Greenback Tn. I noticed a few Tulip Popular blooms opening on April 21 which is (I think) about 2 weeks early. I saw the locust in full bloom on April 24. My bees see to be way behind where I think they should be at this time of the year.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

my guess is that they have been utilizing most of the incoming nectar for brood rearing, having to play catch up on rebuilding their population due to spring arriving late. in my case this was compounded by less honey left over from our dry fall last season available for spring build up. the upside is that we may have less swarming this year.


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## Thinlizzy (May 20, 2014)

squarepeg said:


> my guess is that they have been utilizing most of the incoming nectar for brood rearing, having to play catch up on rebuilding their population due to spring arriving late. in my case this was compounded by less honey left over from our dry fall last season available for spring build up. the upside is that we may have less swarming this year.


UT, not sure if you're back in Kingston but the Tulip Poplars are now blooming across the river from you and it looks like no rain for the week ahead...


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

The dearth is over now - black locust, blackberry, and some poplars starting to bloom. I bet some of my hives have trippled in weight in three days.

Time to fret about swarms now.


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## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

Thinlizzy said:


> UT, not sure if you're back in Kingston but the Tulip Poplars are now blooming across the river from you and it looks like no rain for the week ahead...


I am but a lot of the trees are in bad shape, the bugs have really eaten up the leaves this year. My hives next to the river are in catch up mode right now. I pulled some burr comb today and it's tulip popular, taste real good! Like David LaFerney noted, most of the trees now have blooms on them and the locust (a lot of it in Kingston along I-40), blackberry and privit is up next. In mid-May the basswood trees along the lower ridges start bloom too! I have not found a queen cell in my Tn. hives so that's one good thing.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Sugar maples started blooming yesterday here. Still only a few dandelions blooming, waiting for full bloom.


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## AdamBeal (Aug 28, 2013)

UT thanks for the update I noticed the poplars around my house looked odd the other day the leaves were all full of holes eaten up looking. No blooms that I can see here yet but on them but very close. Blackberries starting to bloom yesterday and locust a few days ago. Lots of bees on clover in my yard yesterday too.


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## Thinlizzy (May 20, 2014)

I looked in my 3 hives yesterday and found queen cells in 1 of them, I usually checkerboard every year but didn't have the stores to pull it off earlier in the year and I usually do a walk away split but don't have the spare boxes to perform it. I must admit I was a bit of a slacker this winter, that voice kept whispering,"better order some nuc boxes just in case..."


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## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

Thinlizzy said:


> I looked in my 3 hives yesterday and found queen cells in 1 of them, I usually checkerboard every year but didn't have the stores to pull it off earlier in the year and I usually do a walk away split but don't have the spare boxes to perform it. I must admit I was a bit of a slacker this winter, that voice kept whispering,"better order some nuc boxes just in case..."


Valley Farmers Coop in Midtown has all the Kelley Bee supplies that you would need for that.


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## Thinlizzy (May 20, 2014)

UTvolshype said:


> Valley Farmers Coop in Midtown has all the Kelley Bee supplies that you would need for that.


Forgot about them, I'll run by there tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder


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## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

Thinlizzy said:


> Forgot about them, I'll run by there tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder


Good guys work there. Also make sure you have a queen before you pull the queen cell, I'm having problems right now with dud queens or no queen in the hive, over the last three weeks I've lost three queen or the queen ran out of sperm or something... Man they get nasty when that happens. I'm using queen cells from my Ga hives to fix the oops hives.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

this is one weird spring. the first crocus blooms last wed. dafodils 10 foot from my hives in early bud still this morning, same around the neighborhood. no sign of buds on the tulips at all. it is supposed to get up near 80 today, it got warm a week ago, the trees are starting to turn green but no sign of fruit tree blossoms yet. every thing is out of order. some stuff a solid month late some a week late... the bees found some pollen somewhere first about 10 days ago about 3 weeks late. yesterday i did some spring splits, at a freinds nearby, i got some queens and he had some colonies with a lot of bees. we put queens and a couple of frames of brood into nuc boxes. not much of any young brood at all but nice capped brood? what suprised me was all the capped drone brood, some frames almost solid. i am not sure what is going on but my guess is the bees do... i am hearing reports of lots of dead-outs and surviving colonies with lees than a soft-ball size cluster. one weird late spring with a LOT of march dead-outs. my friend was mass producing drones??


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

dandelions are finally blooming here. Apples are still not starting to bloom. I am also seeing more drone brood than I expected in my hives, I finally have walking drones.


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