No shortage expected here. The bees look nice.

Sustained cold is a whole lot better than up and down weather. And sustained 
cold "primes" the tree buds better. The tree buds are their first spring 
feed.

I've seen maples bloom here in mid-January. No sign of maple bloom yet - and 
I regard this as good, because it stimulates the queen and starts off the 
season, but it is followed by dearth until at least mid-March, which can be 
a serious time of starvation for bees, if the beekeepers are not alert to 
the need for feed.

Of course, if some beekeepers let the bees go into winter light, and didn't 
feed then, there will already be losses. But that probably would have 
happened anyway, no matter what kind of winter.

Dave in SC


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Ames" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 12:41 PM
Subject: [BEE-L] Winter of 09/10


>I'm hearing about beekeepers in the SE region of the USA that were 
>unprepared for extended sub freezing temps since the New Year.

>One could imagine larger winter losses for the SE region and if package 
>production is slowed by the weather could a bee shortage be coming this 
>spring for some regions?

>Can anyone with firsthand info from these areas comment?

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