I Received this Email from A beekeeper who is from a tropical region in South America, the topic seems to apply to a lot of bee keepers over the last few years. I will post his E-mail to me and then my response.
Keith
It is my observation and would like to know if you have been experiencing any similar situations regarding the bees and weather shifts. Actually, we are now in the mid month of May. It appear that the bees are telling me that we are now entering April. Honey flow for my location usually ends here in May. However, so far there has been very little production to date with very sparse capped frames and the colonies have all indications that the height of the flow is now imminent. I now have to rearrange my management in sympathy. Is this a global change that may not have been published or is it an effect of Global warming or dimming for which you may be following?
Kindest Regards,
Noel
Noel
The weather, and weather systems vary from year to year in regards to timing. But at the end of the year every thing averages out to with in a few deg and inches of rain of the long term average. If Sept Oct and Nov are warmer than average You can be assured that Dec Jan and Feb will be colder. In regards to trying to keep bees alive thru all these varying conditions if we knew what the winter weather was going to be like in advance we could prepare the bees better for weather. Also as beekeepers we tend not to do all we could so the bees have the best chance of survival but prepare the bees to what usually works for us in most years. In the spring we need to adjust our beekeeping calendar to the plant bloom, they are controlled by the thermal units. cold and wet late spring sunny dry and warm will give an early spring. In my area My natural calendar is cat Willow - first pollen, Dandelions first good nectar flow and temp warm enough to do full inspection. 1 week later fruit trees are in bloom and a major flow between the tree blossoms and dandelions. Then a 4 week dearth to the last week in June when the main honey flow starts with Clovers, Vetch Alfalfa. the timing of the cat Willow can vary a week. The Dandelions and Tree Blossoms and can very 3 week on the calendar because of there dependence on the thermal energy to advance to blooming. But by the last week in June the plants are more influenced by hours of light, so the bloom is within a couple of days from year to year.
Hope this makes sense Keith
