>We are looking at snow showers today, a warm spike mid-week up to 60F / 16C, and then more accumulating snow possible by Friday.  Still snow on the ground around here.  All hives have pollen patties on them and several frames of honey.  But, next weekend I may end up adding syrup feeders.  Latest I have ever seen them start bringing in pollen was April 17 a couple of years ago.  May break that record this year.

I guess I am in a minority, but I quit early packages as few years back. That year was a late spring [like this one] and I had about 20 late March packages. They were just sitting there for a few weeks, basically doing very little besides raising a little brood and eating my sugar and patties. I bought about 15 late April packages and I found them to build up very fast, and actually some of them outperformed the early packages in honey. That will much less sugar and pollen sub [and much less work]. So now I get them and late April and am very happy with the results. I like the packages to come around dandelion bloom. Seems to work best for me.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html