The Bees are out in Force!

Well, the day was a as beautiful as ever.  Olivia and Simon were out on the 4-wheeler and Isaiah and I were throwing the football around when I decided I wanted to go and see the bees.  As we walked out in the sunshine I hoped to see both hives out and flying. The hive facing south and in front was doing very well.  Many bees were out getting some much needed air.

The second hive was not very busy at all.  There were few bees and there appeared to be a bit of a struggle between a few bees.  I then realized a few mistakes.  The hive entrance was wide open and the bees had very little chance of stopping a robbing situation.  The second problem was the fact that they also had no insulation on the East side of the hive.  I quickly closed off the entrance and there was not much I could do for the insulation.  I hope they are ok.

We went back to watching the strong south hive. As I watched, I noticed that the bees were actually bringing in pollen!  I was shocked.  I trained Simon and Olivia on how to see the pollen packed on their back legs.  They caught on and I wondered aloud - where could this be coming from? The maples were not out and the basswood (linden) were not producing yet.  Simon immediately mentioned that noticed a tree in our swampy area near the pond was blossoming out.  We decided to check it out.  He was right - it was a willow and the pussy willows were out - only on one tree though. There must be more as the bees were bringing in a lot.  It could also be the silver maples.  They tend to blossom out early.

Olivia also got the hang of riding Simon's bike this morning.  She is getting better!

On another note - Mrs Tuft Tuft and Rupert went for a vacation to the Goodhand's farm.  I think Rupert is going to enjoy his time there!

I also took cuttings from more plants - The rose along the driveway, the Haskap and honeysuckle bushes along the driveway and the red currant bush.  I do hope they germinate well.  I pulled out one of the cuttings of the wall ivy and notices that it had callused over and was starting to send out small, very fine roots.  This was one of the cuttings that I had left under the stove for a week or two and then placed in the potting mix - with no rooting hormone.  Should be an interesting spring!  I am excited to see what happens.

Bee Sotic.