We have goldenrod blooming in Maine too. Very early as every thing has been 
this year. I am wondering what will happen with the Japanese Knotweed this 
year, it is a big flow for us. It was killed back by a hard frost when it 
was about two feet tall and had to re-grow I am wondering if it will set the 
bloom time back then we could loose it to a fall frost before blooming. I 
saw pollen coming in my hives on March 16 from Sliver Maple. We starting 
extracting a couple of weeks ago which is unusual. The bees are already 
sticking things up with propolis so every one thinks it will be an early 
winter.

One thing we are seeing/hearing about, I work at a beekeeping supply shop so 
see lots of beekeepers through the week, is laying workers. I had a hive 
that went queenless about 7 weeks ago, I gave them a caged queen and they 
did not release her so I took her out.  Then I gave them two frames of brood 
making sure there where eggs, they did not raise a queen. After time of 
course they had a laying worker. I put a strong 5 frame nuc next to the hive 
and when I put the nuc into a hive body I put the laying work hive, down to 
one box of bees, on the other side of the yard. I was hoping to at least 
salvage the field bees by re-homing them in the nuc, that worked well. I 
kept meaning to shake the laying worker hive but never had time to deal with 
them. A few weeks ago was helping some one with their hive and there was a 
fairly mature swarm cell they wanted to squish so I took it, put it in a 
cell protector and stuck it in the laying worker hive. I thought it was 
worth seeing what would happen.They accepted it and now have a laying queen. 
Since I only have 50 hives I try things some of you would not be bothered 
with, learn something every time but then know it will not always go that 
way too.

Karen Kimball 

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