Spring is in the air!

Spring is the in air, or trying to, as I have yet to remove my insulated wraps off of my honey bee hives.

Most of you know Dave and I have three Honeybee colonies just outside of the town limits. This is our second season.

I started ‘honey’ beekeeping last year because of the interest my niece, Christine, has with her hives in Fort Qu’Appelle, SK. (Hank’s Honey) She was so excited with her new charges that I thought I would give it a go. It’s great exchanging ideas, failures, and successes with her.

I have gone to two beginner introductory/beekeeping courses. One in Regina in 2018, and one recently in Calgary 2019. Both sessions were for beginner, or as a refresher course for beekeepers. Being in two different areas the information was the same, but different. What one group discussed, the other filled in the questions I had when I got home. Both groups have incredible support through facebook groups, and websites. ( If you ask a group of beekeepers a question you will get at least 10 answers, all being correct.)

Regina and District Bee Club, and the Calgary and District Beekeepers Association. I have gone to two meetings with the Medicine Hat Bee Team. Club is just getting off the ground, but has many enthusiastic members.

To date my honey bees are finally getting around to different pollen sources to start building up the brood. The population of the hive drastically reduces in the fall due to the hives removing all the Drones, and the older bees. Survival is prevalent at this time as there is only so much room in the hive, and available food sources to keep the colony and queen safe, warm, and healthy.

On days of approximately 10 deg C, sunny, not too windy, you may get some tiny visitors looking for pollen sources around town. The first sources in our area are trees: willows, and ash. I’ve looked around and noticed that the Crocus, Dandelions, Pansies, Violas, and tulips, to mention a few.

Honey Bees are not aggressive. They have one thing on their mind, and that is foraging food for their hive. If its a windy day and one of the honeybees fly by they may fly close to you to get out of the wind. Don’t panic, just step aside and they will continue on their merry way.

If you happen to find a cluster of them on your property, they will leave after after a few days. This is called a ‘swarm’. If you want, just give me a call and I will collect them. They are probably my bees that have outgrown their space. (I have hive boxes ready for them in case they are too crowded.)

Until next month

Bee Happy!