Lionel Evans <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
The ones that were there did not produce any
> nectar. 

Lionel,
I’m from Western Pennsylvania.  We had what appeared to be abundant Locust bloom in 2008, but the bloom did not produce. Most beekeepers here blamed the weather.  When the weather finally turned favorable, petals were starting to fall. But the Locust bloom was so abundant, and the lack of surplus so devastating in its form,  I am not ruling out the possibility of some stress factor such as perhaps virus or pesticides, might be hindering the foraging capabilities of honeybees.    

Our inspector, whos opinion I hold in high regard, states that it appears to be caused by weather/bloom related, and not disease related.  He stated that he has seen the same symptoms in the hundreds of colonies that he has inspected and or keeps.

This has been a continuing problem with early blooms recently.  I feel I must resort to changing my management style, the plan this season is to shake all the colonies into singles and super above that restricting the queen from moving up and making splits with the remainder of brood.  This will hinder colony expansion, but with the abundant population of bees at that time of the year being reassigned to foraging, and nowhere else to store incoming nectar but above the bottom deep, I should be able to get surplus, and build them back to 2 deeps after Locust and Tulip for the fall flow.

Best Wishes,
Joe


      

*******************************************************
* Search the BEE-L archives at:                       *
* http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l *
*******************************************************