I'm getting real tired of El Nino's dastardly deeds, and hope that today's
sunshine was a taste of a lot more to come.  It has been gray and overcast on
most of the few days it hasn't been raining.  Shades of a Great Lakes winter!
-- Except for the warmth.  Our lungs have been full of creeping crud, just
like they used to do during the "Great Gray Funk" of winter in the lee of Lake
Ontario.  Maybe the sun will clean them out.
 
    I won't be laughing at the pale, coughing, sickly folks who come to Myrtle
Beach from "upNawth", for Easter vacation this year. Maybe I'll go join them
for a change.
 
    We've had just about our annual rainfall since Christmas, so everyone is
expecting drought this summer.  Go figure!
 
   Today was gorgeous. Maples have been in bloom for two weeks, but today was
the first day for the bees to get onto it, and they were hauling in maple
pollen this afternoon.  Daffodils were bright and beautiful in the sunshine.
Our neighborhood pear and apple trees are in blossom; we can forget any fruit
crop around here this year.  We've got the best wild mustard bloom I've seen
in many years, due to the inability of the famers to cut the fields.  Mustard
yields little nectar, but very rich pollen......if only the bees will get a
chance to work it.
 
   I fed one yard, and it was nice to find them in good shape. Some of the
bees I moved in the drizzle Saturday were pretty poor and greasy looking.
They'll get feed and a closer look tomorrow.
 
   This yard was inaccessible, as there was a gully big enough to break an
axle right across the roadway to the bee yard, a momento of our 5.7 inches of
rain last week.  I had to walk in for the last couple hundred feet, carrying
some pails of syrup.
 
   There was a little water still running over the paved road going to the bee
yard, but the sand in the road showed that it been much higher.
 
    Most of the hives had eaten all the last feeding and were anxiously
awaiting more.  A couple bees told me they were mad that I let them run out of
feed. But all were smiling when I left.
 
    I always come home high, when the bees look good. -Even if the weather has
been lousy.
 
    Some of the hives were clustering in the feeder rims, so it's about time
to start adding second boxes for more brood.  When you see a huge cluster with
nice clean looking, sweet smelling bees, you got a mama cow, pregnant with
twins or triplets.
 
    The goundhog said six more weeks ..... which is about right for the first
real flow...... Just gotta' make sure they don't run out of chow until
then.....  Warm, but overcast weather has kept them active, rearing brood, and
eating up their reserves.
 
[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
 
Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm