April 7. Our yard hives are amassing actual pollen! Final week, I confirmed you some faux pollen coming into the colonies. Nothing beats the actual stuff. Though determined honey bees will carry nugatory sawdust as a pollen complement, nothing evokes a colony like a little bit of pure pollen and nectar.
My honey bees and I are a good distance north, excessive in elevation, and affected by vagaries of our continental local weather. We’re in Calgary, a thousand metres above sea degree with some rocky mountains in sight alongside our western horizon. Our semi-prairies, semi-foothills location invitations extensive fluctuations in climate. For example, up to now week we’ve been as cool as minus 11C and as heat as plus 21C. (12F to 70F).
The colonies common 6 frames a minimum of 3/4 brooded, which suggests populations needs to be up 25,000 extra staff within the subsequent three weeks. And there are numerous fuzzies – I might guess that extra bees are already rising than are dying of outdated age. It is a vital time for this change-over in bee demographics, with new changing outdated. Beekeepers typically lose wintered colonies right now of yr when cool moist climate retains bees from foraging, reduces meals assets, and induces nosema. In the event that they get via this, the honey bees will in all probability be nice.
To assist them, I make certain they’ve sufficient honey in reserve. Syrupy sweets can push them to develop their brood nest. I additionally give all of them the pollen desserts they’ll take. That’s about two kilos each week. When you select to pollen-supplement your bees, don’t cease till the climate is secure and the bees are amassing sufficient pure pollen. When there’s a constant, dependable abundance of pure forage, honey bees will give up consuming your complement. However in case you cease feeding the bees too quickly, they are going to probably not have the ability to feed their creating larvae, which can die. Though honey bees are often vegetarians, they’ve been caught consuming their very own younger when meals is scarce.
Another excuse to feed pollen complement is that honey bees strip an terrible lot of pollen from their neighbourhood’s flowers, doubtlessly leaving much less for different bee species. Within the spring, when flowers are scarce and foraging days few, your nests of honey bees will want about 200 grams of pollen every day to feed the creating brood. That’s 4 kilos each ten days. Perhaps extra. When you feed a high-quality complement, you do the native wild (non-Apis) bees a small favour as a result of your honey bees don’t want to gather as a lot from flowers, leaving extra for the natives.
