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jal_ut
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Package Bees

I just picked up my package bees (6 packages) and installed them in the hives today. Its rather a cool rainy day and the bees did not want to fly, but they took to the hives OK.

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applestar
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Did you lose some over the winter? Or are you expanding? New honey makers in the house! :-()
Last edited by applestar on Sun Apr 24, 2016 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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jal_ut
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I lost all my bees this past winter. This is rough country to winter bees. They form a cluster on the frames and have some honey stores in the cluster. They eat honey and vibrate a bit to generate some heat. If it will warm up a bit every few days, they will be able to move onto new honey and survive, but when it goes down close to zero and stays there for ten days like it did in February, they can't move onto new honey and starve to death in the cluster.

imafan26
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Our problem with the bees was the unpredictable weather. It was warm in January, cold in February. March was both. It woke the bees up early, but thankfully there was some winter corn planted and while there were not a lot of flowers around they found enough and there was some robbing because the colonies were more active at a time when they usually are not.
I did not cut my basil over the winter because it was one of the few reliable bloomers and the bees are on it every day. I have planted fennel but it hasn't bloomed yet. The citrus, mango, avocado and other fruit trees have bloomed so the bees have plenty of food now and the robbing has stopped and there will be honey soon. My sunflowers are blooming now and the bees really like that. I will hopefully be planting more marigolds in the herb garden. I use it for pest control but it has long blooming flowers that are good for the bees as well. At home the bees are going after the blooming Kai choy cabbages and the Jamaican oregano blossoms. I started some borage seeds and they just sprouted this week. Bees love borage. They also like alyssum, cosmos, any of the single composits, corn tassels, sunflowers, achillea (I don't like it, it is very invasive), onion blooms (they are out now), carrot family blooms, coriander blooms, honeysuckle (another invasive vine), lavender, verbena, penta, cuphea, blooming herbs like basil, oregano, mint, and thyme. They will pollinate vegetables like cucurbits squash and cucumber, peas, beans, and cabbages.

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jal_ut
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Nice weather. Clear blue skies and temps near 70 degs F. Dandelions are blooming, but the bees are not working them. For some reason they don't seem to have any pollen nor nectar. The alfalfa and clover are the big honey producers in this country, but none of that is blooming yet. The fruit trees are blooming. The bees do work the fruit tree blossoms.

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applestar
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I was watching some honeybees that came to visit my garden, and they weren't interested in the big dandelion clusterflowers either. They were working the tiny dead nettle blossoms.

Didn't you say they "target" the type flowers to be harvested that day in their "pre-flight meeting"? Maybe dandelions were NOT on their schedule.

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jal_ut
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Today I have a decorative Crab Apple tree in bloom. The bees are all over it. There is a plum tree in bloom too, but the bees are not even looking at it. Bees still not working dandelions.

imafan26
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Scout bees usually find the source and tell the rest of the forager bees. They usually repeatedly go to the same source until it is exhausted. A few stragglers will visit other flowers. They seem to go for patches that have a lot of flowers in close proximity rather than go from flower to flower over a wider space. Solitary bees have preference for different types of flowers and while there is some overlap of the flowers they visit they seem to stay in their territory.

The honey bees here like
the orchard trees avocado, citrus, mango
Basil - they will be on the flowering basil almost all day
corn tassels
sunflowers
onion flowers when they are in bloom
alyssum
verbena (especially carpenter bees)
lavender
Russian sage
They will go on the marigolds but not a lot
sage
Jamaican oregano
cabbage blossoms
cuhpea
achillea
asters
coneflowers

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jal_ut
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Today the corn is dropping pollen and the bees are all over it collecting pollen. Walk out by the corn you can hear the buzzin of the bees. They are also working the squash that is in bloom.

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jal_ut
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October 11, overcast and 58 degrees. The bees are flying some, but I have no clue if they can find a flower. I don't see any. Guess they are packing water?

imafan26
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Do you feed your bees in winter?

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jal_ut
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I keep bees in a double bodied hive. In the fall there will usually be around 8 to 10 frames of honey in the boxes. This is the bees winter food. I may feed a bucketful of medicated sugar water to administer meds for foulbrood disease. Once the winter snows come, the bees do not come out, but stay in the hive in a cluster and eat honey and vibrate a bit to generate enough heat to survive. Any day the temperature gets above 50 degs F, the bees will come out for a cleansing flight. With a little luck some may survive winter. I have lost from all to none. Depends a lot on what the weather does. Many beekeepers who have bees in this area in summer will haul them to California for the winter. Can't afford to do that for my six or eight hives.

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jal_ut
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Here it is mid January and a foot of snow on the ground. 11 degrees F this morning and sunny. No bees flying here today. So what to do in this off time? I guess, do some reading and studying of the subject, build some boxes or frames, play on the internet? Have fun!



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