Hello All,
Strange to turn on world news as see pictures of your area. Fair to say the
drought has ended for my area. Torrential rains has always followed a
drought for as long as I have lived in this area.
Comparisons to the 100 year flood of 1993 are not correct. We have had 7 in.
if rain since the start and then the rain stopped yesterday and things are
drying out. In 1993 we had 7in. of rain two days in a row (14 total) and the
rain kept coming.
Missouri Beekeeping:
Most yards are too wet to get into. Will probably be the first of next week
before the ground dries enough. I am lucky all my bees are out of the
holding yard and on to locations.

I sit here working in my building putting wax in frames listening to the
radio. Very unusual for this time of year for me. I feel blessed I am not in
the situation of a close friend beekeeper which has been splitting bees from
California and coming out of the apple orchards in rain. I mean rain you
need to wear a raincoat. The temps were in the 80's so the rain bothered the
beekeepers more than the bees.

The rains are really causing the white Dutch to grow. I expect an early
White Dutch bloom. Yellow & White sweet clover produces the second year and
was knocked back last summer from drought. I worry we will not get a big
white & yellow sweet bloom ( main honey plant). If this crop fails (like
last year) I am moving bees to better forage. Possibly the Nebraska/South
Dakota area.

Also we get many plants growing and blooming after this type of rain we only
see in this kind of year. Heartsease (smart weed) is one and will darken any
grade of honey its mixed with and also add a undesirable odor. In "93" I saw
drums of dark off flavor honey harvested. After two years of drought there
has not been enough smartweed in the river bottoms to warrant a fall move
into the bottoms. Mother nature will change the scenario this fall. The area
I place bees in late fall for winter stores will look like a big pink waving
carpet producing heartsease. Over a 1000 acres of smartweed! Excellent
winter feed for bees and they really brood up!

The U.S. Farm report weather predicts our weather pattern to change to
dry to normal. If so we will get a better honey production year than we have
in the last two years  which is my prediction if the change to a dry pattern
happens.

Their report has never been far off before so I choose to depend on their
weather over local programs. Farmers make business decisions off the U.S.
Farm report. However getting up at four AM to catch the report limits its
weather information to mainly farmers.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison


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