Early Pollen? | Unhealthy Beekeeping Weblog

A few days in the past, on March 22, we had daylight and warmth. Honey bees had been gathering pollen. I don’t keep in mind such a rush of pre-season pollen on this space. It’s so much sooner than anticipated. I figured their goodies had been from pollen-producing timber. Right here within the metropolis of Calgary, non-native elms present some early pollen. Different timber, reminiscent of poplar, additionally hand over a bit, even whereas snow remains to be scattered across the panorama. We don’t have a lot oak or maple right here, although in milder elements of North America, these are nice for spring pollen and nectar. Since it’s too early for willow or crocus, I made a decision that the pollen circulate was doubtless from some huge timber. The pollen was pale yellow, apparently from a single supply or species, and was packed in extraordinarily small bundles. Right here’s a brief video clip:

However then I noticed one thing that made me surprise in regards to the pollen supply.

This seems unusual to me. We don’t typically see a honey bee hustling unconsolidated pollen on the entrance door. She has solely a bit in her seen corbicula. It isn’t sticky the best way pollen often is and fairly a little bit of the mud is scattered exterior her baskets. This pale pollen resembles pine, however conifers received’t shed right here for a couple of weeks. It occurred to me that the bees, gathering this uniform-looking bland pollen could be carrying pollen substitutet from one other beekeeper’s yard.

Now we have a dozen pastime beekeepers inside a brief foraging flight of our dwelling. Though I don’t arrange open-feeding stations for soy or different pollen subs, some neighbouring beekeepers could be attempting this newest feeding fad. Pollen complement feeders can entice loads of bees on a pleasant day when nothing else is blooming. Exercise can seem like this, from beeinformed.org’s web site:

I don’t set out substitutes like this myself. I don’t need to ship my bees off to feast at an all-you-can-eat buffet the place they are going to meet bees from neighbouring hives, maybe choose up mites, soil their ft with AFB spores, or get pushed round by bees from colonies which might be greedier and greater. (Possibly you’ve seen related exercise at your native all-you-eat dinner spots on late Friday afternoons, one other place the place huge and grasping is abundantly rewarded.) In early spring, I like to put pollen muffins on the highest bars above the brood. This assures that even weak hives will get some assist. Protected, in-hive feeding additionally retains meals out there when a chilly snap or rain interferes and the bees can’t entry the fly-in diner. What do you assume? Pollen or Pollen-lite? What are my bees gathering?