Hello All,
I just came in from checking hives. The weather today was 55F. with no
wind. Very little brood and many hives with no brood yet. Very different
than the last few warm winters. We had the coldest November & December in
many years and close to a record.
My fellow beekeepers which returned from South Texas report very little
brood being raised in South Texas. Ice storms have broken down many trees
in the area of the bees. A large Texas Beekeeper with the AHPA said many
beekeepers were not finding enough brood to ship bees to California for
Almonds. Several Texas beekeepers have cancelled queen orders for lack of
brood. I would be interested in hearing what other beekeepers are seeing in
areas they have been able to actually look into hives and look at frames
for brood.  I am not interested in hearing from armchair beekeepers which
have only lifted the lid and seen bees covering 4 or 5 frames. In my
opinion the bees in the Midwest are about three weeks behind the place they
were last year at this time.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa,Missouri