Despite the coldest January and first week of February, in at least
a generation, spring is easing into South Carolina. Maple starting
opening this weekend, and a nice day today brought furious bee
flight. I expected maple to be very late, but it's not as late as I
thought.

  Maple bloom is the kickoff for spring, but it brings with it a danger
that many beekeepers do not recognize, to their great loss. Maple
nectar and pollen stimulate the queen, so brood production now
gets into high gear. The actual dates vary according to your location,
but southeastern and south central US generally has the problem, of
which I speak, and probably many other areas as well.

  The problem is that, after maple, there is a severe dearth of
nectar. Here in coastal SC we cannot depend on the bees to
support themselves until about April 1, though it may vary a week or
so with the seasons.

  This means that rapidly brooding bees (using a lot of their stores)
can suddenly starve to death around mid-March. The saddest thing
is that it won't be the sorry hives that do this, but the ones that are
really strong.

  So maple bloom is the signal to check the bees, if you haven't
already. Heft each hive. If  there is ANY doubt, feed. Check again in
a couple weeks. You'll be surprised how much they can eat in two
weeks, when they are building fast. Feed again, as necessary, until
that magical date (for your area) that they can sustain themselves.

  I spent the day in our worst yard (some of you know, I "retired"
awhile back, but they still allow me on the premises). These were
bees that spent the summer (a serious drought year here in SC) on
sandy land and they went into fall looking poor, despite a round of
feeding in early September. We had hoped they would pick up more
from goldenrod in October, and some did. But, of 32 pallets (128
hives) there are today just an even 100 survivors. Last week I fed
about a drum and a half of syrup to the yard, and today another 2
drums.

  More than half of the survivors are in beautiful shape, with wall-to-
wall bees in two or more boxes. We usually keep them in SC in one
deep brood chamber and two to four medium supers. I cleaned up
the deadouts, checked for AFB (none) and put the brood box under
one of the strong ones, with an extra division board feeder. This
means they will not have to heat an empty box above the cluster,
but they will move down into it quite rapidly when they brood up.
Thus replacements for the deadouts will be simple to make up. As
the season progresses to the point where I don't expect any more
cold weather, I'll put the deeps on top of the strong hives, instead of
underneath.

  I saw a few drones, and more drone brood. This winter most of the
hives dropped to the lowest levels of brood I've seen in quite a few
years, but they have good adult populations and the brood is now
coming back fast. Some have whole frames of eggs.

  It's a glorious thing to be working bees in a t-shirt on a sunny
spring day in Carolina! I just can't help but rub it in for those of you
who would have to use snowshoes if you wanted to check your
hives right now....

Dave Green,  AKA Pollinator
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com

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