The GREEN SEASON
February 26, 1998
Los Banos, California
Its the Green Season in California, we only have a brown and a green season
and its green now. The grass is green, the hills are green and its rained
enough this season to make even this desert Arab green with envy. Yep our
wet season is 180 to 200 percent of normal and we still have hope of
getting more maybe even setting some new records for wet over the 130 year
record just eclipsed for the City, (San Francisco).
Beekeepers, the majority of beekeepers in the United States who keep their
bees on wheels have just finished moving their bees to the almond orchards
in California, Thank's Guy's, and in fact the first semi headed back to the
south just left yesterday with a load of bees as it was surplus, now that's
a new record for leaving early. It will be nice around here when the rest
of you leave, but.. Anyway the almonds are in FULL bloom, yep, sorry guys
it don't get no better because this is not the same Heavy Bloom year as
last and the experienced eye can detect the difference. (There ain't as
many blooms per inch, same as there were not that many flower buds per inch
months ago.) But not to worry there are enough blooms to make another
record crop for the almond grower, it all depends on the weather the next
ten days and it looks good.
If it stays cool, just warm enough for the bees to get out a few hours a
day, a good set can be expected. Not such good news for the bees but gosh
when you crowd so many bees into one small, well not so small but almost
contiguous and for sure contagious area, only the most optimistic novice
beekeeper would expect the bees to do good anyway. Heck that's why they pay
the beekeeper anyway, its called pollination and "pollination is good
farming practice but seldom good beekeeping".
*In the near future California Almond Growers will bee looking for honey
bees from Canada and Mexico. (You read it hear first.) That what's NAFTA
is all about, breaking down those artificial trade barriers and when a
billion dollar industry believes they need those better bees sitting just
across the boarder who are we to protest that maybe ours would be/do better
if there were not so many bees as are here now. It well seem strange having
all those Mexican and French speaking beekeepers looking for cells and
queens to take back home in their hives. We got enough of Spanish speaking
bee helpers around but will have to really beat the bush's for the French
speaking one's. Maybe by then they will have their own country and won't
want to take part in NAFTA as English is the official language anyway or is
it Spanish, well trying to read it, its really in Geek Speek, you know like
oral sex ain't adultery if you don't do it with your wife. Well I guess us
old drones can't talk much as some say my Paw was my own Grandpa anyway and
Mom's got the DNA to prove it.
Beekeepers have had many problems getting their bees in the wet and muddy
orchards and in getting in to feed them but most have got the job done,
sometimes the hard way, but its done. Grafting of queen cells has started
and sales of cells and queens are expected to be real good.
Fire Ants, after one or more semi-loads were reported destroyed by the
California State Bee Police to control hitch hiking Fire Ants some southern
states beekeepers made a rush trip to the local hardware garden department
and purchased cans of ant killer to knock down any hitch hiking fire ants
and sure enough they had no problem finding them and did a job on them and
the Bee Police could not find them.
They did according to the local Modesto Bee newspaper last Sunday find
another "killer" bee hive in some pipe imported from Arizona in the heart
of the bee breeders clean territory, but that could have been a re-run of
the last story about finding "killer" bees in Northern California.
Now that all the feed cans are on those beekeepers hives with Tex-Mex bee
stock and they have reported no problems with the theft of full cans of
syrup as in the past. I guess there are some good things to say about
having that good old Texas Regulated bee stock when your bees are two
thousand miles away from home and fair game for the local bee thieves who
will follow you around feeding bees and steal the full cans of syrup as
fast as you put them out. One beekeeper is using two gallon buckets and
figures they are too heavy for the bee thieves. Sure hope those singles can
lap two gallons down before its time to move them out in about three weeks.
It is too early to say much on the condition of the bees but all hives with
a queen and a few frames of bees now have brood and if the indications just
reported from the captive Condors laying eggs early I would expect this
season in California to have the best potential of any I have seen the last
100 years or so for the beekeeper who has Sage locations for all his bees.
Crops of 200 lbs or more were common the last time we had a wet season like
this, about 30 years ago in this area and that was after they all swarmed
one or more times.
Sad that a wet year is measured not only in inches of rain but lives lost.
One old time beekeepers used to say that when eight or nine drown in his
local river system it would be a good Sage year and this year that loss has
been reported for his local river so if he was around he would be getting
the dozer ready to clean up some bee roads and clear locations later on
when the rains are over. Some beekeepers are shopping for new trucks to
handle the expected crop and because they need them in less then the normal
90 day delivery cycle to have time to put on their special bee beds and
loaders they are finding the selection narrow.
Some say the El Nino rains are over now and we are into the 3rd day of a
drought, if so all above is non-operational as we still need a few inches
more of rain the next two months to top off those records. Has it ever
rained too much in California?, well if you build in a flood plain or on
the side of a cliff, or down in a dry lake bed you would say yep, we had
enough, but if you are an old beekeeper you would say more is better then
less and more times then not just one more rain would have make the
difference.
ttul, the OLd Drone
www.beenet.com , nothing there yet !
... A comely olde man as busie as a bee.
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in any form, or to print for any use.
(w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE AT OWN RISK!
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