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My Red Maple is blooming!

Thanks for posting. I could see some buds enlarging, but, thanks to red-green color blindness, without my binoculars and a strong sun, I have trouble seeing most red maple blooms. I was seeing bright yellow pollen coming in yesterday, but did not see the olive green pollen, that I rightly or wrongly associate with red maple. If the bees are flying today, I will pay more attention.

I have seen buds swelling over the last week, and today, with binoculars, was able to see open red maple blooms on a few of the trees in neighbors' yards. My bees have been hitting the water heavily for 3 or 4 days which is usually a sign of increased brood rearing this time of year.

In the last week, I have seen crocus, red maple, yellow bell, and henbit bloomed. Acres of henbit in the Farmer area southwest of asheboro.

Have a Red Maple stating to bloom, no activity from the bees yet.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s5E1OK ... sp=sharing

Bees are steadily working the Red Maple in my backyard today.

I looked in on the bees at the Arboretum this afternoon. They have been working leatherleaf mahonia and were working winter honeysuckle, though this is a little past its prime. I have shims on both hives and was a bit surprised that the stronger hive has begun to build small amounts of burr comb. I didnot see any drone brood in the few cells, but that is what will go in them if the queen moves up. I hope to check bees in Brown Summit in the next few days and see what is going on in the shims on those. My house bees didn't get shims and bricks. I can easily keep an eye on them.

I saw some red maple blooms on some trees yesterday, but most of the trees I see are not that far along.

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.

Red maple is blooming!
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I can see a lot of red buds in the red maples behind my house, but my vision is not good enough, even with binoculars, to see if some of the buds have bloomed. I was seeing lots of yellow pollen and I thought I saw some olive green pollen coming into hives yesterday. I have been putting out dry pollen substitute since around December 23rd. Yesterday morning, only about 6 bees were coming to it, and when I got home from working bees elsewhere, no bees were at the substitute. This normally happens when red maple blooms. Can anyone else report what they are seeing with the red maples?

If anyone is over at Cooperative Extension, check on that big old red maple in the front. It was one of the earliest bloomers last year!

I'll be there for the Beginner Beekeeping course tonight and will report on what I find.


The large maple at the Cooperative Extension IS blooming.

Red Maple blooming in Summerfield!!

I just now watched mine for about 10 minutes. A lot of pollen is being brought in, some of which may be olive in color. What plant does that olive-green color come from? Does the blooming red maple mean the flow has begun?

I will go out today and take a quick look inside my hives.

I've been told the olive green pollen is red maple although other sources show it to be a different color. Red Maple is the earliest large pollen source in our area and also a nectar source that stimulates brood rearing. I would not call this the start of the flow since it is extremely rare for our bees to collect more maple nectar than is used for brood rearing. Danger of starvation gets greater as brood rearing ramps up this time of year.

I took a quick look inside my two hives. I pulled a few frames only. I saw a little nectar on one frame, but I had a sugar cake on that hive. I don't know if they turn the solid sugar to nectar? I did a tip-up swarm check, but it may be too early for swarm cells. On one hive I found many SHBs on the bottom board and killed them all. In addition to ones running around, the bees had cornered about 20 of them in a corner, and I easily smashed them all. I did not see drones or drone cells. One hive consumed all the sugar brick and pollen patty, the other had not completely consumed either (weaker hive). But I am happy that both hives have wintered well so far.