The early honey-flow has been remarkably HEAVY this year!  There are 60+
('at's a conservative estimate) lbs. nectar in most of the hives.  In fact,
the queens are not laying much, because the (double deep) brood chambers
are so clogged with nectar.  It must be honeysuckle -- we had lots of rain
a couple of weeks ago, followed by prolonged, very warm sunny weather, and
the ubiquitous blosssoms are evidently gushing nectar.
 
Despite the congestion, I have only seen one colony with developed swarm
cells, and they did not even swarm, judging by the strong population still
present.  It apparently ended up being a supersedure instead.  Normally I'm
bucking swarming in a number of colonies by now.
 
Never seen a nectar flow of such magnitude, so early.  The usual main flow
begins with the black locust trees, around 1 June, but even they are early
this year.  I saw profuse bloom on them all over town today, already.   The
time is ripe to get more supers on, but I'm almost out of empties.  Most
hives have 3-4 on already.  One guy I spoke to has 5 on all of his colonies
and those are practically full.  Somebody really turned on the spigot!  The
bees are bringing it in faster than they can ripen it, as there is not much
capping going on yet even though the supers are filling up.
 
Quite an amazing beginning to the honey season.  (Not to complain.)  What's
cookin elsewhere?
 
later,
 
JG