Sunday Reading - The Spring Build Up Has Begun

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were beautiful Spring-Like days which I am sure the working girls enjoyed like crazy. I wouldn't know since I only saw those days from inside a car. Yesterday and this morning were just as nice however and I made it a point to go out and observe the comings and going from the hives.

There was a lot of activity and a lot of pollen coming in to all the hives up near the house anyway. Mostly an off white to very light gray colored pollen but occasionally I would see some pale yellow like this girl is carrying in the above picture. She stopped on my wrist for a little rest before heading to the hive as you can see.



Such a large pollen build up tells me the bees are doing just fine and preparing to feed all the new larva some bee bread to get them big and strong for Spring. The nurse bees will mix honey and pollen together to make a concoction called "bee bread" which is what the young are fed until they become full grown worker bees. Generally speaking if a hive is running short on honey this time of year I will find them more interested in the outside feeders I have set up or even scavenging in the compost pile. This year I am seeing very little interest in those places so this is a good thing and means the hives must still have plenty of stores.

I took the last 10 bales of hay out of the stock trailer this afternoon as it's about time to get ready to transport the slaughter lambs. This will be followed closely by running the useless nag horses back into their regular pasture and getting ready for shearing day. All of which will be followed closely by lambing season.

During all the above I will also still have to cut some wood and begin building this years expansion and replacement boxes, tops etc. for the bees too.

Things are fixin to get very busy around here once again.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!