It's not just a rainy night in Georgia - we have flood warnings for the next several days and the promise of three to four inches of rain as a possibility.
And we haven't even completed the fifth inning....so the game doesn't really count,
There's no re-play in the nectar flow like there might be in baseball.
It's also COLD to add insult to bee and beekeeper injury.
Jerry Wallace posted on the MABA Facebook page a couple of days ago a photo of blown down tulip poplar blossoms. Here's one blown down (among many, many, many) in my backyard right in front of my hives.
The blown down blossoms are multitudinous and are no longer blossoms from which the bees can draw nectar. The tulip poplar is only one of the spring flowers currently in bloom now.
All of our bees are being affected by the weather. Both they can't fly and when it's raining, blossoms are destroyed and the nectar available that particular rainy day is not reachable for the bees.
Also virgin queens can't mate in these conditions, so people who made splits in the last three weeks are not going to get well-mated queens, if the queen can mate at all - can you imagine being a drone trying to aim for the queen in rainy, windy conditions?
So time will tell sooner than later what the impact of our very wet and cold spring will have on the honey production for my area.
PS. I just heard on the news that the Atlanta Braves are rained out tonight for only the 17th rainout in the 16 year history of the Braves at Turner Stadium in Atlanta. So the bees and the Braves are suffering.
Linda, Blackberries are in bloom now too. Bad news on the tulip poplars here in Durham as well. I had a swarm leave my top bar hive last Sunday. They stayed treed here until Friday, 5 days!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are still getting snow in MN. Four large storms in april and one last tuesday. I am trying to replace a drone layer and none of my queens are laying much brood at all. It is a total pollen and nectar dearth here. I am worried it is going to be a grim season for us!
ReplyDeleteSplits need special care...something I learned this year when a friend made 4 strong splits two weeks ago, and forgot to put a feeder on one of the splits. She checked them four days later (outyard). There had been cold and rain ever since the split day and the hive with no feeder was almost completely dead. Just a few bees huddled around the queen, all brood chilled off and a mound of dead bees on the bottom board. Really sad. The fed splits were all booming and strong.
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