Early Flow

[Jacobs]

There is a stronger early flow than I have ever seen. My strongest hive at Brown Summit had drawn comb in the shim I put on it for sugar bricks. Some had drone brood, most had nectar, and I got a small piece of chunk honey pictured below. I had to add a super to that hive. Between uneaten capped honey and fresh nectar, the queen had almost nowhere to lay. The hive had not gone into swarm mode yet, so I hope the extra space will slow/stop swarm preparations. At home, the bees have shown no interest in the nectarometer for the last 3 days. Many are coming back with pollen, but a lot are flying purposefully out and back to the hives with no pollen. I think I am smelling some nectar curing as bees fan. I'll see how things go, but if conditions stay generally warm, I'll put a honey super on strong hives later this month.

Chunk_IMG_0773.jpg (13.88 KiB) Viewed 22893 times

[reedyfork]

I had a few of mine with honey up in new comb in the feeding shim also. And I have made the same observations about foragers coming back with purpose without pollen... With temps close to 80 next week, I'm expecting the earliest swarm season we've seen, and I may very well go ahead and add a super first thing next week!