"North East USA" Ladies & Gentlemen, "Start Your Engines"

Had my first harvest today friends!! So excited :heart_eyes::+1:

Only did three of the frames & will wait to make sure the outers plus one are fully capped, and then out of town rellies arriving soon can enjoy the spectacle too.

I’ll post pics soon :hugs:

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Brilliant!..

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Took another look, both of my neighbors field are sunflower so it is 250 acres of sunflower not 75. Well beyond what my 4 hives can possible collect. I am temped to move my hive but it would be less than a mile away. There is a large hill with woods between my hives and the fields. Hope it doesn’t deter them from finding and collecting from them. The fields are 1/4 mile at the closest and 1.3 miles straight line from my hives. This will be interesting.

The farmer leaves parking area along the road because it becomes a community picture taking site. Seniors picture and such.

Need to keep my hives strong until they blooms.

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The closer the better so the bees consume as little as possible for flying fuel.
If Goldenrod blooms at the same time that will trump the sunflowers.

The sunflowers should bloom first week of Sept. I am not sure there is very much golden rod around here but I think it blooms in August. This could be a nice long season for me. Hoping anyway.

Scales going up nicely. Clover is starting to fade but my birdsfoot trefoil is in full bloom despite no rain.

Joe

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The term “start your engines” really applies to the Sunshine Coast (Australia) & surrounding districts RIGHT NOW. The bees are not only filling the honey frames with honey, they are also starting to fill the lids with idle bees, waiting to swarm.

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In my vocabulary @JeffH, it’s ‘gird your loins’ or ‘brace yourself!’ I’ve literally been dreaming about catching swarms!

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I am girding my loins for late summer feeding here. Abysmal season. :cry:

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I think to be a successful beekeeper, you need to be both brave and optimistic. When I read about the challenges you northern hemisphere beekeepers face - mites, feeding and cold winters etc - I wonder if I’d have the sticking power!

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Hi Cathie, I believe you’ll be able to manage your own bees to build up colonies without chasing swarms. Chasing swarms is right off my radar at the moment. The colonies I’m weakening out now have almost every frame in the brood full of sealed & emerging bees. I’m removing 5 frames & only leaving 4 in the middle flanked by foundation frames on either side.

As I’m taking frames to the weaker colonies, I’m constantly seeing bees emerging. I’d hate to imagine how many bees emerged out of frames in the hives that are still to be weakened while I’m typing this message. It’s scary.

The colonies that don’t need weakening today will probably need weakening in the next few days or so.

The thing is, at the moment the population growth is far outstripping the mortality rate.

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Hey you two, get a room, or better yet, a globe: This is Northeast USA! :rofl:

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Hi Ed, it’s all happening down here. I haven’t seen a spring like this one is shaping up to be.

I’ve seen colonies come out of winter strong & full of honey before. What’s happening now, just past mid July is in my 30 years of keeping bees unprecedented.

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My 4-H students did amazing at fair and sold enough honey and baklava to buy a Flow super. They will vote on it at their next meeting :slight_smile:

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Hooray for the 4H Foragers!!! Congrats :rainbow::rosette::honeybee::raised_hands:

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Some rotate pastures for the cows, I rotate base on when the legumes are grazed and ready to rebloom for my bees to work. Working well this year. Nectar should have been done a month ago, but nectar keeps coming in now that the rain has stopped.

image

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Mine are slurping up syrup by the gallons. I wonder how long a dearth lasts!

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Always seems like forever to me! :wink:

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The rains seemed to have refreshed the nectar flow: Previously harvested supers from 3 & 4 weeks ago are ready to harvest again.

Sumac

Evodia


Alfalfa

Clover

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Wow, your land is beautiful! I’m officially envious of the continued nectar flow.

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I have never seen a bee on my alfafa. Even during dearths. Must not have the right flavor.