Red maples blooming already?

[reedyfork]

My bees here in Greensboro are working like crazy right now, and I noticed all bringing in the olive green/gray pollen I associate with red maples. Sure enough, a look around the neighborhood shows me that some of the bigger old maples are already in bloom! Ought to be an interesting next month or two to see what the weather does - and the bees...

As of last week, none had filled the space in the feeding shim with any sort of comb or brood as they did last year, so that was at least a good sign. Looks like they'll all need another peak very soon!

[Linda]

I saw some bees here bringing in the same color pollen. . Is anyone feeding pollen? Should I pop a small patty on top of sugar brick

[Jacobs]

My bees are still interested in the dry pollen substitute I have been putting out, but the action slowed considerably yesterday afternoon. I was seeing traffic at hive entrances at a higher level than just bees coming and going to the substitute. Some were bringing in the olive green pollen reedyfork was seeing. I could not see full blooms on the red maple in the yard behind me, but clearly, some around are blooming.

If you want, you can put a small amount of pollen patty up with your brick. The bees may use it if the pollen supply is low or weather does not permit foraging for it. If you do feed pollen substitute/pollen patties, you will be stimulating brood rearing. Make sure you keep pollen available until the bees show less interest in what you are providing. Even then, you may want to keep a lesser but steady supply available to prevent brood starvation in the event of natural pollen being unavailable. Also, make plans for swarm prevention if your hives become strong earlier than if left to natural brood growth.

[Wally]

Keep in mind, anytime you are feeding pollen sub, never feed more then 3 to 4 day supply. Always check it every 3 days or so for SHB eggs. They can lay, hatch, and cause damage in 6 to 8 days.

[Pharmacyman]

My bees have been busy on these warm days lately. I observed them about 4:30pm yesterday bringing in yellow pollen. I have a red maple in the yard, but it doesn't appear to be blooming as of yet. Do you have any idea what they would be getting yellow pollen from this time of year?

[Wally]

I saw red maple yesterday in full bloom. If your bees are bringing in grayish to green pollen, it is red maple.

[reedyfork]

It was exactly this time last year that I saw red maples blooming and bees working like crazy bringing in maple pollen (and apparently nectar). This was also the time I discovered many of my feeding shims already filling up with new wax and drone comb!

As far as I can tell this has been a different winter. I haven't seen any red maple blooms yet, and as of a couple weeks ago during a quick peek, all of my shims are empty of comb.

For those of you who have looked in recently, I'm curious what you're seeing as far as increased activity, new comb, etc. I'm hoping to try and get out in front of any swarming impulse this year...

[Jacobs]

This has been more like normal winters of years ago. The cool temperatures of December and January are forecast continue into February. If this holds, I'm thinking swarm season may not begin until close to mid-March. Last year, DuaneB had a swarm move into empty equipment on February 16th. Bees built up in the warmth of February but held back swarming as temperatures cooled. They began coming out in early March whenever weather conditions were even marginally acceptable. I got stung up good collecting early swarms because the bees wanted to remain clustered and "resented" being shaken into equipment in cooler conditions.

I'm planning on checking hives with shims next week when temperatures warm up and I'll report what I find. I hope others will join in.

[royl]

I'm seeing the bees bringing in bright yellow pollen (like goldenrod color) today. I do not see any Maples blooming in my area of SE GBO.

[Pharmacyman]

The bees are out in force this morning with the warm temps. I read on Nancy Rupert's calendar that January was a month for adding pollen substitutes. I really don't know if that is necessary this month. About every 3rd bee coming into the hives are loaded with bright, yellow pollen. Have no idea where they are getting if from.

What do you do? Is it necessary to go in and check for pollen stores? Or the fact that I see them bringing it in in large amounts enough to know they have what they need?

[Jacobs]

Give pollen substitute only if you are deliberately trying to stimulate brood rearing. Once you start, don't stop until the red maple blooms to avoid having brood starve when the queen ramps up egg laying. If you do stimulate brood rearing in January, be prepared to take measures to stop/deal with swarming.

[reedyfork]

I would agree with Jacobs. It's always been my understanding that we have sufficient natural pollen around here during January/February (primarily from camellia, mahonia, and red maple), and plenty of warm days for flying and foraging, for normal build-up and brood production.

My impression is the main reason to add pollen patties this time of year would be to stimulate early build-up and maximize population growth if you intend to sell bees or NUCs, or make lots of early splits. Otherwise, you'd just be setting yourself up to stimulate early swarming!

[Jacobs]

I checked all of my hives that have shims and sugar bricks on Friday. My impression is that all hives were weaker than hives at this time last year. There was no comb, not as many bees in the shims, and bees were not consuming bricks as quickly as last year. The bees were actively bringing in pollen, so I'm thinking most are o.k., just slower to build up than last year. At the cooperative extension, Taylor showed me a tree next the the main building that was in bloom. The blooms were something like red maple in shape but were not red. Honey bees were working the blooms and collecting a yellow pollen. Taylor said he could not identify the tree from the bark and blooms, but should have an answer when the leaves appear.

I have the AccuWeather app on my phone. I like the 45 day forecast feature and have been keeping an eye on weather for our Beginner Beekeeping course schedule and also for the month of February. It looks like they have updated February's forecast to have fewer days above 50F, 60F, and 1 fewer rain dates than earlier shown. If this holds, my guess is for swarming to start closer to mid-March than early March, and maybe even late March, as in 2021.

The more folks we get reporting earliest seen dates for red maple bloom, drone brood, and drones flying, the better we can see how these dates correlate with the earliest dates for swarms in our area reported on this Board. These reports are important because they are local to our area and I don't think the information is available anywhere else. Weather history for many years back is readily available from the "Weather Research" link on our home page.

[reedyfork]

I am super-curious to know what tree that is at the cooperative extension office! I can't think of what else might be in bloom this time of year...

Like Jacobs, I also peeked in on all my hives recently and made the same observations. Both in urban Greensboro and rural Summerfield, all my colonies appear weaker than last winter and there was zero comb/brood in the feeding shims (other than some small bridge comb to reach up to the inner cover).

Out of 20 colonies, I discovered one deadout. All received two rounds of OAV in mid-December, and this was the one colony that dropped thousands of mites on the IPM board after treatment! Clearly they had an issue (mite bomb) and were likely already on the decline due to associated virus load. What was left a few days ago was just a baseball size cluster of dead bees with the queen in the middle. They had just gotten so small they probably succumbed during the recent cold snap and couldn't break cluster to reach food just a frame or two away...

[Jacobs]

Tree_IMG_0939.jpg (219.31 KiB) Viewed 15149 times

Not a great photo but you can get an idea of the shape of blooms, the bark of the tree, and the size.

[Wally]

I have Dandelions blooming in my yard.

[reedyfork]

I stopped by Cooperative Extension on Thursday to see the tree in bloom. It is almost certainly a gnarly old red maple (not a silver or sugar maple), and the bees were certainly working it! I haven't seen any others blooming to this extent in the area, but would love to hear what you folks are seeing.

The pollen on the bees seemed to be a pale yellow rather than the typical olive/grey though. I tried REALLY hard to get a photo of this bee and her pollen baskets, but this was the best I got out of like 10 pictures!

[Jacobs]

My neighbor's flowering quince is blooming, but still has a way to before being fully in bloom. I also have speedwell blooming in my yard. The red maples around me are budding, but not in bloom yet. A tree across the street has blooms like a maple, but I am not seeing red in the blooms. I went through my home hives this afternoon and saw lots of capped brood as well as capped drone brood. I did not see any drones. I did move the brood down and gave open, drawn comb above the brood in these hives.

One of our first year beekeepers sent me photos of lots of comb and bees in his shims where he had been giving the bees brown bricks. They had consumed all but a small piece of one brick. I plan to check my away hives tomorrow afternoon. They all have shims. I hope to have to do some clean up in them, but I have my doubts.

[Pharmacyman]

I have a maple tree in my yard that produces red leaves, but I am not sure that it is a red maple. I have attached a bud I just clipped off the tree. Can anyone tell from this?

[Jacobs]

I'm still seeing buds on the red maples around me but I am not seeing blooms. My bees were bringing in tons of pollen today and other foragers were flying in an out like there is a nectar source somewhere. I checked my Brown Summit hives yesterday and only one had a small amount of burr comb in the shim. Most hives were considerably stronger than the last time I checked them. I moved brood down in most and made sure there was open, drawn comb for the queen to lay in above the brood.