Guilfordbeekeepers.org

The Chinese Wisteria bloom this year is really putting out a lot of nectar. All my hives have a grape koolaid/soda scent and I’ve confirmed honey bees on this stuff in 3 different locations. Hives smell similar to patches of this flower. Sometimes it looks like only bumblebees are on it but honey be...

How much help will a pollen patty be now? My bees are bringing in all the red maple pollen they can carry and whole frames are full of it. I'm just curious how much help folks think pollen patty's are around here this time of year. Thoughts?

When you look at a frame of uncapped honey is there a way to tell if this is honey recently uncapped and the bees are eating the honey vs they are still adding nectar? I was wondering if there is some sort of tell in the way it looks?

Here in Colfax I think I’m actually seeing a nectar flow off Lespedeza (Chinese Bush Clover). I have a field bush hogged once a year that grows up in this stuff. The field was humming last two days more than I’ve seen in last few years. Goldenrod hasn’t really bloomed yet, but we’ve had enough rain ...

If they would just snack and move on that would be nice. In reality they don't stop until it everything is gone, which is not fun if you are out of town like I was. After my Bear disaster in April I did quite a bit of research on bear fencing before I built my setup. There has been much written on t...

Bear population in Guilford county is growing. When we first moved to Colfax in 2017 there were bear rumors. Now most people have seen or seen evidence. I drug my feet in building an electric fence and paid the price Thursday: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K83NJNcl5xl9it6CKdnTBBszlrMqFHqr ...

I have some 5 frame deep nucs that are the result of some frames with queen cells I pulled from a hive about to swarm back in May. I used 2-frame mating nucs like the guy at Barnyard Bees on youtube promotes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8JZIrR7iUQ). It worked really well using only 1 frame with...

It is still way too early for Kudzu blooms. That is a late summer bloom. The grape soda scent has subsided a bit since early April. I did some other reading that indicated it might have been Chinese Wisteria. There was plenty of that around in early April.

There is obviously a lot of stuff blooming right now. My hives smell a bit like grape soda or grape kool-aid. I was curious if any of you experienced folks know what might be the source? I live in Colfax.

I've seen bees actively working red maple blooms in Colfax. The first day I saw bees on them was 2/16. Some of the maples seem to bloom much earlier than others.

What type of mountain mint did you plant? I saw some of this stuff about a month ago (I think) blooming at the Aboretum and it was clearly the favorite of all things blooming there. I tried looking it up and saw a view varieties. I think it was "Pycnanthemum muticum". Can you give a recomm...

In Guilford county (Colfax) what is the latest date you folks would install a package of Bees?