Is this Spring

 March 17 2023

Although it was still -12C over night and we still have a good 30+ inches of snow, there is something in the air that says Spring.

We are seeing different birds visiting our feeder and we notice the odd insect flying. The days are warming up as high as +7C some days. The days are also longer now, which lifts your spirits as well.

This is the time that things start to happen. The grow lights are set up and slowly seeds are being started for the garden. 

 

The one thing I don’t like to see this time of year is….all the dead bees that come out of their hives for a cleansing flight and get cold and crash in the snow. I try to save them all but can’t. As much as flying bees means life bees it also means a certain percentage of them won’t make it back to their hives,

It won’t be long until the bees will be finding pollen. I believe willow is the first pollen they normally bring in. All going well, it should start happening within a couple weeks.

Last week it was a nice day so we went over and checked the hives and even though it was too chilly to check on their food stores, I was able to pop off the top and put in a bottle feeder to give them food if they needed it. Instead of 100% sugar syrup, I treated them to some honey mixed in with it. I figured since they pulled through the winter, up to this point….they deserved it.

March 22, 2023

Such a beautiful day today. We decided to sit out on the front porch and have a cuppa. Within a few minutes of sitting there a bee showed up. I swear they hear us talking and come over to see us.

One of the rescued girls out of the snow

Look who came for a visit

April 7 

The past two nights we haven’t had freezing temps overnight. Which means, the melt has started to happen. We went from30” of snow down to 12” over the past three days. Today it got up to a very balmy 16C. 

      

Two days ago I mixed up more honey syrup and grabbed a few pollen patties to take over for the bees. I opened the lids to find they were still doing good. Within minutes they were coming out and flying and landing on my arms and and fingers to greet me. Each hive got more syrup and a full piece of pollen

A fresh bottle of syrup and a pollen patty

I’m excited to start a new year of keeping bees. I have two nucs to add to the apiary this year. My three hives were the New Zealand packages I bought in 2019. The two new ones are coming from Terrace. It will be nice to have some new bloodlines in the bee yard.

Well that’s it for now. See you when the snow goes,