This year with the early and warm spring has proven to be a good start for our little pollinating friends. I go out and check them regularly and they have adjusted and are busy gathering pollen and nectar while the sun shines. The pussywillows were out in the sunshine so the bees could access a great pollen source. If it happens to rain during the time to pussywillows offer their lovely golden snack then as a beekeeper you are posed with the dilemma of supplementing their diet by providing an alternative food source.
I have purchased pollen patties, and offer a sugar syrup mixed with honey and pollen to help a new colony to get started. I put the treat right inside the hive with a feeder. If the bees need extra they will eat up the offering. If they have enough they will leave it alone, preferring to eat what they gather for themselves. A steady food supply tell the queen to go full steam ahead and lays those eggs, there is food enough for the thousands! A good queen will take off laying up to 2500 eggs a day, a relaxed queen will think about it and a queen that doesn’t respond is at risk of being replaced.
It really is a gamble, the weather, genetics, nutrition, my beekeeping abilities and predators and pesticides all contribute to the success or failure of the hive. I am going to roll the dice again this year and hope we will have better luck. Here goes…….
Time marches on.
– Loretta Jackson
