May has come and gone now. It was extremely hot and dry. Lots of forest fires sprung up in BC and in Alberta. We had one close to us in McBride, about 90km away. So needless to say on top of the dry and heat we then had smoke. Thankfully the fire was brought under control quickly and people returned to their homes.
We had our first nectar flow when the dandelions started blooming around May 16th, the bees were happy not only to get more pollen but to also get their first food of the season. The sad thing was, that the heat was so great that the dandelions were closing their flowers around noon most days. The edges of some of the flowers looked as though they were burnt. It seemed dandelion season was short lived probably due to the heat and no rain.
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| The poor dandelions struggling from the heat and dry conditions |
We will be heading into Prince George on Sunday June 4th to pic up our nucs. I ordered two this year from our friends Christine and Tavis from Rushing Apiary in Terrace. I am very excited to introduce new blood into our Apiary. They ordered Carpathian Queens from the Ukraine. So it will be great to see how they are. From what I understand, the bees are original from the Carpathian Mountains which covers 7 counties including the Ukraine. They are quite hardy and are known to be calm .
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| Here we are picking up 16 boxes of bees for us and our club members |
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| I had just finished installing our new bees. I think I might of been saying good night to them here |
June 5
I was so surprised when we opened the lids of the nuc boxes, there wasn’t a huge outburst of bees as you would expect. Nope…..they were all busy inside the box and weren’t concerned at all. So needless to say, it took only minutes to transfer them out of their nuc boxes and into their hives. Within minutes they were fanning on the front of the bottom boards, telling their mates this is home. When I went over the next day they were already bringing in pollen and cleaning up their frames I had given them. So, they had settle in.
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| The beautiful Carpathian Queen Photo taken by Monica Z |
June 10
After weeks of no rain, we were so relieved to get some late this afternoon. Hopefully more flowers will open and supply some nectar for the honey bees and native bees. We might actually get a day off watering the garden too.
Tomorrow, as long as it’s not raining, I will be doing my first inspection of the two new hives. I’m excited to see how they are doing. Stay tuned for pictures and an update next time .
Well that’s all for now. Take care.
