2017 nectar flow

Bee cooperative weather is supporting a strong nectar flow of holly bushes, white clover, spiderwort and tulip poplar. Native mining bees and carpenter bees are extremely active too.

This year, I started to checkerboard the honey cap of over-wintered hives on March 6th. Since then, I check the honey cap every three weeks. My version of checkerboarding uses foundation-less frames with no drawn comb. Yesterday, I added another medium box to each hive. I don't know how long this nectar flow will last, but I have monstrously tall hives.

My swarm capture is drawing comb and growing in size too, but at a much slower pace than over-wintered hives.  

off with the bee cozy & spring markers 2012

Bee foraging on redbud tree

Bee foraging on burford holly bush


We returned from a two week UK trip to discover all of my spring markers present (today is day 71 of this year).   Our winter was exceptionally warm and compared to the past three years, the spring markers have come early. 

                              2009               2010                 2011

                         Day of Year        Day of Year          Day of Year

Bradford Pear               65                 79                   60

Carpenter Bees              68                 87                   72

Acer palmatum leaf out      73                 92                   77

Flowering Dogwood           80                 93                   80

Asian Wisteria              83                 96                   81

Carolina Cherry Laurel      73                 97                   83

I removed the bee cozys and during the inspection discover tons of bees and brood in all of the boxes.  I can't say enough good things about the bee cozy--at $15, the reusable bee cozy is a no-brainer.  Despite redbud tree and burford holly bush forage, the bees are more defensive than I expected, perhaps this is consistent with the absence of  a major nectar flow.  Did I nearly miss all of the Atlanta spring?--all except the tulip poplar flow.

holly bush bee forage

In my experience, it is a rare treat to discover bees foraging at eye level.  Presumably the bees are making flights to the tree canopy and our planted flowers and bushes are not the destination of their foraging.  This is an exciting exception, as the morning air warms up I have discovered bees foraging on the holly bush and later in the afternoon warmth I found bees foraging on the winter jasmine (not shown).