Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The flow

I have talked to several commercial and many hobby beekeepers about their nectar flow. Reports have been spotty flows. Some very good, some very bad. Poor nectar flows have been responsible for wide spread swarming that has been occurring across the state. One commercial beekeeper said he has never seen his hives with so little honey. Normally he is extracting by now but there is nothing in his supers. He also went on to say that he sat in a bee presentation a few years ago given by a college professor whose expertise was plants. The professor said whenever we have prolonged cold spring weather the plants that come up that summer will yield very poor nectar flows.
My Basswood trees had three flowers on them this summer. That was the extent of my basswood flow this year. While most of my hives have been doing quite well I seem to be the exception. Hopefully there may be a fall flow that can help get some honey in the supers for everyone.