Nectar Flows

[B_Lee]

I've been watching all the huge clover patches at my work and have yet to see a bee on them. I've been wondering what the bees have been working since my colony's have stopped taking syurp. I took walk around my building today and found a massive amount of blackberries being worked. They look to be in full bloom now and thanks to the great weather will be for all that they need to be (no rain to knock them down).

Anyone else seeing or know what is providing for bees right now?

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[Jacobs]

Some of the blooms on the tulip poplar in my yard are open and some appear not to have opened yet. I don't know if the bees are working it now, but it should be an available source of nectar. The crimson clover I planted is a little past it's prime, but the bees are working it heavily.

[Becky Hampton]

Surprisingly, I saw lots of honeybees on my white Delaware Valley azaleas this past weekend. The blossoms were past their prime and just beginning to wilt/turn brown. These azaleas have large blossoms as opposed to the Snow azaleas which have small blossoms. The bees weren't on any of the reds, pinks, or purples.

[Wally]

Blackberries, poplar, red tips, clover.......

many things are blooming heavily now.

[Jacobs]

Today is the first day I have seen the bees seriously working the white clover in the yard. I guess that means the tulip poplar and other popular nectar sources around here are played out.

[Jacobs]

The buckwheat I planted late last summer re-seeded and grew this spring. It is passed its prime, but the bees are working it heavily today for the first time this season. Some are clearly gathering pollen, but others are searching for nectar. For the new beekeepers, once the spring flow slows, the bees tend to get more defensive and will not be as easy to work as they were. Robbing will become more of an issue, so pay attention to the activity around your hives when you work them.

[mike91553]

I saw robbing yesterday for the first time in a couple months. The heat this week had dried up most of the privet that was blooming. Poplar and blackberry are about played out too.

[Jacobs]

I am getting a strong smell of nectar curing in hives here at the house. Some varieties of the holly family are being worked heavily by my bees and the blooms and my hives have a similar smell. I hope the upcoming cold snap does not do too much damage to young buds and blooms.

[ski]

The blueberries, peach tree and silver maple are blooming here as well as the red buds.
I am going to wait until after the cold snap to go through the hives again.

[Jacobs]

I was checking my hives in Brown summit yesterday and saw that some of the blackberry is in bloom and most will be in bloom very shortly in that location. While I'm not seeing blooms in my tulip poplar yet, I did see a fully open bloom on the ground in the park near me 2 days ago. Bees are still rocketing out from my strong hives and the smell of nectar curing is in the air.

[Gary B]

Not sure what everyone else is seeing, but I'm seeing nothing coming in my supers. One hive I have has a pretty good population and still nothing.
Another hive I have, I had to shrink back to a single deep from two deeps, as there's just not much laying going on from the queen.

I started two other hives on brand new foundation, and they are pulling it out and I see some nectar but not much.

What's everyone else seeing -- I live in Summerfield. I'm wondering if all these big storms have had an impact.

[Jacobs]

Up until this past week, I was seeing nectar coming in at hives in McLeansville, Brown Summit, and at my house in Greensboro. Even with that flow, bees were showing interest in burr comb with honey in it that I scraped from frames and put on top of hives. Had flows been really strong, the bees would have ignored the honey.

I am afraid that the series of heavy rains we have had have washed out the tulip poplar nectar and knocked down a good number of the blooms.

[ski]

The supers I put on the hives late February early March are full of nectar and are being capped. The supers I added April 20 have some nectar but are not close to being full.

[Jacobs]

I think the flow here at the house has slowed considerably. I put a pint of honey water out this morning and it is about gone at noon. Any scrap of comb with honey in it gets immediate and enthusiastic attention from the bees. While they are showing interest in any free food, the work I did this morning did not cause a robbing incident or even strong probing, but I fear that we are about to enter the robbing season.

[Jacobs]

I am smelling nectar curing at the house for the first time this season. The bees are working some type of holly which is blooming in David's back yard.

[mike91553]

I split a hive last Wed and put in 3 empty deep brood frames for the Q to lay in. Went back Sun and they were all full of nectar. I think they swarmed anyway.

[Jacobs]

I checked hives at the arboretum yesterday. I had put a super of open drawn comb in each of them 12 days earlier. The weaker hive is building nicely but still had plenty of space. When I looked in the stronger hive, I immediately noticed nice white wax on ends of cells where repairs had been made. All frames were full of nectar. I added another super of open drawn comb to this hive just under the nectar filled box. If you have strong hives, you may want to check whether you need to add additional honey supers.

[Gary B]

I still have a jar of sugar syrup out in my yard and bees were definitely interested drinking it today so that tells me the flow is probably just starting. Looking up in my poplar trees the buds are still closed but beginning to open. I think within the next week or two things will really start picking up. I've got my supers on ready to go, hopefully we can avoid the rain out from last May.

[Jacobs]

My house bees are now very willing to clean up honey/nectar from frames I want cleaned. I don't know that any additional serious amounts of honey will be capped, but later in the week I plan to check a few hives that were close to capping frames in the uppermost supers. The arboretum hive was kind enough to cap 10 medium frames before swarming. I extracted those last week and they produced a very light golden honey. There are a large number of holly type "trees" lining the edge of the arboretum along Wendover and shielding the park from the baseball field. I suspect the majority of the nectar came from these.

[mike91553]

My bees are eating more than they are bringing in. I built a super last year to hold 12 pint jars and the bees built comb and stored some honey both last year and this year only to eat it up first when the flow stopped. They had nearly capped a couple jars this year but its gone now.