Pollen spotted 1-25-15

[specialkayme]

Went out to a few hives to feed some pollen sub, and noticed some pale yellow pollen coming in. Took the opportunity to open a hive and inspect a few combs (probably shouldn't have, but oh well). Had 2 solid frames of eggs, and one frame of mixed brood.

Looks like maples are in bloom, and the season is at our door step!

[Jacobs]

I don't think the red maples have opened in my neighborhood, but they are budding. The bees are still going to the spent brewers yeast mix heavily. They will usually go to it and also bring in other random pollens until red maples bloom. When the red maples bloom, the bees lose almost all interest in the spent brewers yeast. I think the red maple pollen is olive green.

[ski]

Have been watching 4 maples in the neighborhood one was in bloom today. The other 3 are budding.

[Jacobs]

Yesterday afternoon (2/8/15) fewer bees were coming to the spent brewers yeast mix and more were coming into hives with pollens of different colors. I'll keep the mix available to bees for the next few days to see if it is a sign that enough red maples are in bloom to cause the shift or whether it was the effect of a 70°F+ day in February.

[Locust & Honey]

Our pollen flow has been heavy the past couple of warm days. What is the super bright red pollen they are bringing back? Is it even pollen??? Looks like it could be sticky, maybe propolis?

[Jacobs]

As the day progressed I saw fewer and fewer bees going to my brewers yeast mix and more and more bringing in a yellow pollen. I'm not seeing much of the olive green pollen and suspect that the early red maples blooms were damaged by the extreme cold weather we had.

[ski]

Similar situation here, the bees have been cleaning out the bucket of brewers yeast mixture but today they took maybe half.