Despite recent cooler weather,  the blossoms continue to move along about
three weeks ahead of schedule.  A little gallberry is now open, though the
bulk of it is still in the bud.  We usually get gallberry starting around May
5.
 
   We've had two frosty mornings, but little damage was done, except in
pockets.  Friday was so cold the bees didn't work at all, but they were right
back out Saturday.  Yesterday and today gave the best flow yet this season.
 
   We are adding supers to many hives.  Except for some that swarmed, the
supers are full of bees.  I really like to pop the lid and see wall-to-wall
bees across all the top bars in the top super.  An occasional hive has
plugged out already, but most hives have not capped too much yet.
 
   This spring has produced more swarms than I've seen in several years, and
some of them are where I do not know of any kept bees.  I was supposed to
check on one today, but from the description, I suspect they are already in
the wall of a house, and I just didn't get to it.  For some reason folks are
calling from a long ways out.  I got a request to get a swarm in Columbia
(two hours away), today.
 
   Last year's spring freeze killed the bloom on many of the berries and
fruits.  This year they bloomed heavily.  The wild plums around one of my bee
yards have a thumb-sized green plum every inch or so on the branch, probably
10 to 15 per branch.  If they all ripen they will be breaking limbs.
 
    Huckleberry bloomed the same way, and the most common type is nearly
done.  Holly had heavy bloom and is now done.  Blackberry is midway in the
bloom period and many of the thickets look just like snow.  Gallberry is
budded heavily.
 
    Tupelo came and went during the colder days, and I don't think yielded a
lot. But all in all, it looks like a good honey year.  Of course I never
would count the honey, until it is in the drum.  I have seen bees produce it
and promptly eat it back up in a bad weather spell.
 
    I hear moans and groans from the Florida folks that gallberry is not
yielding like normal.  The weather is too cold and windy, with a lot of rain.
 That's a tough loss after the orange crop was so weak.  Well folks, we took
our turn last year, with late March temperatures in the teens, and hard
freezes until the end of the first week of April.
 
   We had the first noticeable pesticide hit last weekend, right here in
Hemingway.  I don't know what it was from, and haven't had the time to
investigate.  I suspect mid-day mosquito spraying, because the mosquitos have
been bad.  Seems like the vector control folks should know better by now.  I
don't know of any farm spraying yet, of the type that could cause loss. Once
in a while we have an early hit from wheat spraying, when there is a lot of
mustard blooming with the wheat, but there is no wheat near these bees. Wheat
is now heading, and, if they spray, that is the time they do it.
 
   Our town barbeque-shag festival is this weekend, and we are having open
house at the honey house Friday and Saturday.  We are NOT ready!  I guess
we'll get ready, because it is already advertised.  If the weather is good,
there may be ten thousand visitors in town.
 
    This is the barbeque capital of the world, folks.  Y'all come on down for
some good eating!  Now, if you talk barbeque in Texas, you are talking beef,
in the northeast  you are talking chicken.  Here you are talking pork - in
its entirety, with secret sauce recipes and all.  There will be about 25
whole hogs slowly cooking all night long, for the benefit of the judges and
the public.
 
    We've offered to top off the grand prize with a case of quarts, if the
official winner has used South Carolina honey as THE sweetener in the sauce.
 
    Just in time to interfere with the festival plans, the kiwifruit is
coming into bloom, and I expect to have to move bees in later this week.
 Kiwi is a difficult fruit to pollinate, and requires some attention to do it
well.  With gallberry coming on so early, we may have a real hard time
keeping bees in the kiwi blossoms.   Ho, boy,  what a week this will bee!
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554        (Dave & Jan's Pollination Service,  Pot o'Gold Honey Co.)
 
Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
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