Things are Poppin' Now. Swarm season is just about over, and most everything that didn't get worked got itself requeened at least. In the lower coastal areas had an excellent tupelo and blackberry flow. Plenty of sunshine plus leftover moisture from the winter flooding made ideal conditions. Unfortunately this is my breeding range, and I had to use just about everything to raise replacement bees; only a few were supered here. In the upper coastal plain, where I supered quite a bit, the light soils dried out so much that there is nothing in most of the supers. Blackberry is now over. There is *snow bloom* on the privet (a lot of abandoned homesites around, where it practically makes a tree), so what honey there is, will be darkened. They are also working ligustrum. Gallberry hasn't kicked in yet; I think it's going to be too dry. We are in a full blown drought, with .7 inch of rain in March, and .3 in April. A few scattered areas got heavy rains and violent weather yesterday morning. We've had four days in the 90's, but generally spring has been sunny and cool. We made a lot of nucs, most of which we'll use ourselves this year. Mating was very good, except for one dragonfly infested yard, which only made 50%. I've been changing them over into ten frame boxes, adding a frame or two of brood to each, and feeding them some more syrup to help them fill out the empty comb.. Bees have already been placed for squash and Kiwi fruit, and soon will be going for cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumbers. Look for a small crop this year. Some farmers did not get good stands due to the drought. Some has already been disked up; others they've saved, but figured weren't worth putting in bees, so the drought will hurt my business. I did not think I'd have enough bees, now maybe I'll have extra. But I'll wait and see. Some of the irrigated guys may order extra, seeing a potentially good market. On Interstate 95, you could sit and watch the bee trucks go by, headed for northeastern apples and cherries. Probably half a dozen tractor trailer loads a day. The guys at the scales love 'em. You can tell when there is another bee truck ahead, by the bees on the scales. Do any New Zealand or California beekeepers on this list do Kiwi fruit pollination? Kiwi is hard to pollinate, and info is hard to get. I think we are doing okay, but I would love to connect with others that are doing it to share info. It would be awful barren without our honeybees. I spent about three hours at midday today just observing the Kiwi pollination. I saw only one solitary bee and one carpenter bee, besides our busy little helpers. I love wa tching the honeybees wallow around among the anthers. Some of the growers tell me that bumblebees work them, but I think it's carpenter bees. I haven't seen a bumblebee yet this season, but carpenter bees have been plentious. (Our local supermarkets have rock hard Kiwi fruit, and don't sell very many. When they reach absolute perfection, they put them in the mark-down bin. Nice for me - spotted some today and I'm eating one now.) [log in to unmask] Dave Green Hemingway, SC