Signs of the diminshing Nectar Flow

In Atlanta our nectar flow is tied to the bloom of the tulip poplar.  When the tulip poplar is done, the nectar flow is pretty much over.  We will continue to have nectar sources and we always have a little bump in the availability of nectar when the sumac and catalpa bloom in late June/early July, but for now, it's over.

This has been a funny spring.  Everything is two weeks earlier than last year.  The privet hedge bloomed in coincidence with everything else, and it will be interesting to see how that flavors the honey.

If I couldn't look up in the tulip poplars above my backyard and see that the bloom is done, I could tell that the nectar flow is over by the behavior of the bees.  They are still primed to collect nectar and disappointed that it has almost suddenly stopped.

They indicate that it is over by collecting honey wherever they can.

I had the two frames below sitting under my deck since January when I discovered that my hives in my backyard had died.  These frames had been somewhat slimed by the small hive beetle and the bees ignored them…….that is, until today.  Today there are bees robbing out these two frames like crazy.




Also I have lots of wax under my house cut out of frames and waiting for Jeff to build us a bigger solar wax melter.    Some of that had remnants of honey in it and you can see bees all over the comb in the foreground.



Another way to tell that the nectar flow has ended is that the bees have slowed down in building comb.  Whether you use foundation or not, when the nectar stops, the bees stop drawing wax.  They have to have resources to build wax and without nectar, they have no fuel.

When you have foundationless frames, it's quite obvious as you can see in the empty hive box below from Morningside.  If you use foundation, there's an illusion that something is going on because each frame is full (of plastic foundation, that is) but in those boxes as well as my foundationless boxes, NOTHING is happening in Atlanta today.

Miscellaneous Bee Tid Bits

This morning there were still bees clumped in one of the flowerpots.  This makes me think even more that there is no mated queen.  But I set up the nuc with a Boardman feeder and the bees went into the hive.  I have no idea what to think of this swarm.  I can't check on it until Monday so hopefully they will have gotten their act together by then.



This little clump is pretty connected to the flower pot.


Another miscellaneous topic:  when you buy a package of bees, there are going to be a certain number of bees that die in transit.  This happens simply by the attrition.  In a hive a number of bees die everyday, but in the package, random bees have been shaken in together.  For some of them, their time is up in transit and they die.  In the particular package that I installed in this hive below, there were stacks of bodies on the floor of the package.



Bees don't like to have dead bees in their hive. So the bees quickly moved out the dead bodies. Compare the scene in front of the hive above with the small number of bodies on the ground in front of the other package hive installed the same day pictured below.  The package for the hive below had very few dead bees on the bottom of the package.




And the last miscellaneous bit, the tulip poplar is blooming in Atlanta evidenced by the bloom on the ground below.  This signals the beginning of the nectar flow in Atlanta - much earlier than usual.  Typically in Atlanta the tulip poplar blooms from mid April - mid May.  Now with everything blooming earlier, the question is how will the early spring affect the honey crop this year.

The Georgia Flow is Slowing Down

In my neighborhood the tulip poplar has finished its bloom and the blackberry is all done. The air smells of privet but even the privet is at the end of its bloom with the flowers changing from bright white to old yellow on the branches.

It's amazing to me that the bees have so little time with an abundance of nectar before they are in short supply.  And here at the end of the flow, we have had a sudden spate of cold weather - temperatures in the low 60s for several days and in the 40s at night.

Now the bees who have been very productive over the last month will have less to gather and will have no major source of nectar blooming in this part of Georgia.  They will still forage and will find garden blooms, milkweeds on the sides of roads and ditches, with sumac yet to start blooming as well.  But the big push for nectar gathering is done.

We only have one big nectar flow in this part of the state.  Goldenrod and asters provide a minor early fall flow, but those are not delicious honey flavors.  In Rabun County the sourwood flow doesn't start until June, but it too only lasts for a month.

Now the work of the bees is to ripen the nectar they have gathered and to cap it for storage for the winter (and for harvest for the beekeeper).  After only a short, intense month, they will have to make do for the rest of their winter stores.

The Nectar Flow has Begun - The Tulip Poplar is in Bloom!

With the bloom of the tulip poplar, the nectar flow begins in Georgia. My neighborhood is full of tulip poplar trees. I have several in my yard. This lovely branch is in front of one of my neighbor's houses, dipping down and showing the large and lovely bloom. The bees must think they are in heaven, diving into the nectar in these blooms.



In another sign of spring, the house finch that has nested in a corner of my carport has hatched her babies and they are about ready to leave the nest. Here are two of the babies waiting to learn to fly. I didn't get a great picture because I was scared to stay too long or get too close. To keep them happy, I haven't turned on my carport light all spring long and have turned off my security light that is right on the other side of the wall at the back of their nest.

Last year chickadees occupied this nest. This year there are these house finches.



And every night a barred owl calls out "Who cooks for you?" into the night outside my window in the trees.

Spring is in full force in Atlanta!

Notes and News about Cannibalism in the BeeHive

Note:
For the last five nights we have had record-breaking low temperatures in Atlanta. The bees have suffered. They can't forage as much - just a few hours in the day. Bees have died. I've seen dead bees outside of Proteus (60) and Mellona (40). They may be dead drones or worker bees who were too close to the edge of the cluster as the weather got colder. I have not seen dead larvae or chilled brood.

Note:
Tomorrow should be a pretty day so I will add a honey super to Mellona. The tulip poplar is in full bloom and should be for several weeks and I want the bees to make lots of honey.

News:
At least this was news to me. At the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Meeting tonight, the speaker was Curtis Gentry, who has a PhD in entomology from KU. Curtis is the beekeeper for the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

In his talk, Curtis commented that bees get food from three sources: the pollen or brood food, royal jelly, and if the queen is too prolific in her laying, the bees EAT the unhatched eggs and feed the protein back to the baby bees. Who knew???