Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I think I am breathing a sigh of relief!
I just checked out the tulip poplars in my back yard and mine have not been hurt by the freeze. The buds are tight and green and I expect to get a poplar crop.
Any thoughts or observations?

Kurt

I was on Beesource, and someone in the Marion area indicated that they had lost the tulip poplar? I was skeptical about that, because mine seem ok as well, and I would think that Marion is a week to week and 1/2behind us.

Is that flow typically when most in this area start suppering hives??

I was in Marion yesterday and the populars were totally black. They looked to be dead. It will take quite a resurrection for them to produce this year.

I don't think we were near as cold as they were. I will wait another week before crowing too loudly, but I think we will see a nearly complete comeback on all blooms in this area.

That is GREAT news Wally. I hope all will be well with the blooms. What will the outlook for us be if the blooms don't make a come back?

GLOOMY

Maybe we can make some of that sugar syrup honey!

I am going to use the powered sugar method to treat for mites (wink wink ) and make some powered sugar honey.

The following should be encouraging information:

You may have seen news this week of the heavy damage to many North
Carolina, apple, peach, pear and berry crops as result of the hard freeze
over the Easter weekend with economic damage estimated at more than $100
million.

I asked Debbie Hammric of the NC Farm Bureau specifcally about
potential damage to the tulip poplar bloom since that is the largest single
source of our honey flow throughout the state. She in turn, passed the
request on to an expert on the subject, Dr. Richard Braham, of the NCSU
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources.

Here is his assessment:

" Based upon my cursory examination of poplar trees around campus, I
> estimate that about one-half of the flowers were impacted by cold
> temperatures. The severity of the impact to these flowers is not
> yet clear, however. The remaining one-half are still in relatively
> tight buds, and likely escaped all injury. Owing to the large
> number of flowers produced by poplar trees, I suspect that even the
> loss of one-half of the flowers will have only a moderately low
impact
> on the availability of nectar for honey production. My best guess.
"

Dr. Richard Braham, NCSU Department of Forestry and
Environmental Resources 4-13-07


That should be encouraging news to most North Carolina Beekeepers.
Charles Heatherly
NCSBA President

I personally don't think you will see even a 25% decrease, much less 50%.
All plants, and all animals, have one common instinct, to reproduce. Until a plant makes seed, it will keep trying until frost. I think you will be astonished at the recovery in the plants in the next 3 weeks. All the hype you hear about the fruit and berries is just for collecting crop insurance and preparing the public for a price increase.