Spring has Arrived in Texas
Spring has arrived in Texas and it's our favorite time of year! About a week ago on March 5, Mark and I spent the day inspecting the hives in our apiary. At the apiary, we found a few flowers starting to bloom around the hives.
As we started to inspect the colonies, we noticed bees returning to their hives with very full pollen baskets. It was so amazing to watch them land one after another with their rewards. We had to take this video to share.
The bees continue to draw out new comb on the black plastic foundation frames. It is mind-boggling that they have produced this white comb in just one week.
Each of the eight hives have a top feeder which holds two gallons of sugar water. When we first used these feeders, we had some bees drown because they found it difficult to climb out. We have since placed sticks in the feeders to allow the bees to escape the reservoirs, and this seems to have solved our problem.
In beekeeping, it often happens that when you fix one problem, you gain at least one more problem. Notice the space in the middle of the two sugar water tanks? This gap is about 1.5" and allows for the bees to crawl up from the frames below to reach the sugar water. The bees see this gap as empty space which they like to fill with new comb where they can store more honey. Having comb in this space is an issue for us as beekeepers. We need to be able to remove the top feeder for access to the frames below, which disrupts the new comb and honey the bees place in the gap. It isn't too big of a deal; we just use our hive tools to remove this comb and keep the gap open.
Mark and I plan to visit the apiary again on March 17. We are expecting to see several more varieties of flowers in bloom and we are hoping that our bees are happily foraging throughout the countryside.
Click on photos to enlarge.
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| Spring Beauty is a small flower that we have seen blooming along the open grassy areas around the hives. |
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| There are tons of Wild Blackberry (or possibly Southern Dewberry) bushes blooming all around the hives. |
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| We found some Henbit blooming. It is a tiny weed that grows low to the ground. We have read that it is edible and part of the mint family. |
The bees continue to draw out new comb on the black plastic foundation frames. It is mind-boggling that they have produced this white comb in just one week.
Each of the eight hives have a top feeder which holds two gallons of sugar water. When we first used these feeders, we had some bees drown because they found it difficult to climb out. We have since placed sticks in the feeders to allow the bees to escape the reservoirs, and this seems to have solved our problem.
In beekeeping, it often happens that when you fix one problem, you gain at least one more problem. Notice the space in the middle of the two sugar water tanks? This gap is about 1.5" and allows for the bees to crawl up from the frames below to reach the sugar water. The bees see this gap as empty space which they like to fill with new comb where they can store more honey. Having comb in this space is an issue for us as beekeepers. We need to be able to remove the top feeder for access to the frames below, which disrupts the new comb and honey the bees place in the gap. It isn't too big of a deal; we just use our hive tools to remove this comb and keep the gap open.
We "recycled" this comb and honey by placing it on top of the hive lid for the bees to reuse. They will remove the honey from this comb, and take it back into the hive boxes.Mark and I plan to visit the apiary again on March 17. We are expecting to see several more varieties of flowers in bloom and we are hoping that our bees are happily foraging throughout the countryside.
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