HONEY BEES: AN ADVENTURE: Where is Spring?

Friday, May 09, 2014

Where is Spring?

I was just wondering where spring was in the world...because it is not in Minnesota yet! We still have low temperatures in the thirties in the morning. I bet you don't like that, well bees either.

I have installed my packages: 4 April 12 and 2 April 21. What a welcome for my bees coming from Sunny California and Georgia! They must wonder on what planet they have landed!

I will tell you their story.

In order for us in Minnesota to obtain honey bees in the spring, they have to winter in warm places like California, Texas and Arizona. Therefore many commercial beekeepers move their hives on long bed trucks in October and November to Southern States.

Once the colonies arrive in warmer weather, they are fed carbohydrate (sugar syrup: to stimulate brood production) and protein (pollen patties: make "bee bread" nutritious food).

The beekeeper will feed his bees until each hive has 6-9 frames of brood. After about 4 months, mid-February most beekeepers put their populous hives on trucks to pollinate the Californian almond groves. This pollination not only help the almond business which is value at $4.3 billion, but it helps the colonies to expand.

Then when the almond pollination is done about 2 weeks later, the hives will go back on the trucks and moved North, following the next bloom: citrus, peaches, plums and then apples.

Now the hives are full of bees and ready to swarm. This is when the beekeepers divide their colonies creating packages or nuts to sell. You can see that the package bee business in the U.S has been build from pollination, following the different blooming fruit trees in many states.

Warmer states like Georgia, or Florida for instance don't need to move their colonies anywhere. They provide pollination in their own state, feeding their bees when needed (droughts, or "cooler" winters), then dividing their hives to be ready for April Northern beekeepers like us.