Fun to hear what's going on all over, thanks all.

Here in SE Washington St. (Palouse region) we also had a late spring but after a relatively mild and wet winter so very good ground moisture. Our early spring blooms are Black Hawthorne, Willows, Alder (pollen only) Shepard's Purse, Dandelion. I mostly depend on the early stuff to build up on as I don't consider it "table grade". Mid May the Black Locust, Service Berry, Lupine, Blackberry, Mallow Root, Jim Hill Mustard, Henbit, Hound's Tongue and a great Purple Vetch bloom put 2-3 westerns (60-80pounds )  of our "Palouse Wildflower" on the strong colonys and brought all the laggards up to snuff. Surprisingly and happily for me a low swarm rate. Don't know exactly why. Did the usual reverse, equalize, young queens, and keep them a bit hungry but I aim for big honey producers and don't generally split. Swarm rate for me often 25%, this year less then 10. Sometimes you get lucky. Starting this week I'll pull the spring crop and prepare for the summer main flow of Star Thistle and Canada Thistle that I keep separate as single (mostly) floral source and with the good moisture expect around 100 pounds. The Star looks great and is just showing color. That will go until frost but early Aug. mints Horehound and Sages and Rabbitbrush will darken the crop so I get the good stuff of late July and will get maybe another 30 pounds of fall wildflower after that. All in all looks good and with a few timely thunder storms could be great. 

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

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