Early Dearth?

[Tremyfro]

We have been dry for weeks now...we did get a few showers but nothing since. The wind has been blowing and it is cold.
No OSR near us so spring nectar has been slow.
Two days ago....we had a warm day...yes ...actually warm. Then back to cold and windy days.
At my next inspection I am going to make a good note of stores. Although I know all the colonies have stores ATM....with this weather the likelihood is no nectar. I only have a super on one colony so far. I can't see any point in putting them on when they are still increasing the brood nest.
So is anyone else experiencing a dearth due to the weather?

 

[Poly Hive]

I have double brood colonies on 16 frames of brood and under ten bees in the super.

It is very dry here with no rain for over two weeks and cold and windy. If it hits 13C we say how warm it is.

Forecast is for no rain for the next week so not looking good.

PH

 

[Fritillary]

Yes. eg Opened one hive in the last week to find loads bees and BIAS - no stores at all. Others already being fed.

 

[B+.]

So is anyone else experiencing a dearth due to the weather?

Some colonies are slower to build up than usual. I agree, but, its times like this that the better ones show themselves.

 

[Fritillary]

Some colonies are slower to build up than usual. I agree, but, its times like this that the better ones show themselves.

With mine it's rather that the colonies started building up apace, early last month, and now there is no food. A May gap it seems. Apart from the cold dry weather, most of the local spring flowers look to be over.

 

[Dadnlad]

All those frames of unused winter stores we were taking out to free up brood space might come in handy sooner than expected

 

[Erichalfbee]

Things have slowed a little here but Hawthorne is out and I have seen bees collecting pollen so I am hopeful there. Holly is out and sycamore. Being largely clay here I think there is plenty of moisture for them. Three colonies have two supers with some frames capped and plenty of bees. Rain forecast for next weekend. It gets to 15 degrees or so through the day. I just wish the wind would drop
I colony on five frames of brood only and building slowly has nosema so I am spraying it and the two other little ones.

 

[Eyeman]

Those extra few degrees we get in suburbia makes all the difference.
Spring flow around here is from trees which aren't much affected by short term droughts.
Still conker, sycamore & Hawthorne for them to forage on for the next couple of weeks.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Were having a bit of a difficult spring here, Like you we had no rain for about 6 weeks, until last week, then 40mm on to bone dry OSR )(that was only a week until its finished but still a lot of flowers), that hadn't given much for the last 3 weeks, so the few hives that had supers on, say 30% of hives aprox, that had nectar in, has been cured and mostly capped over , has now started to crystallise as usual, but slightly more so this year, because of the very cold nights. The frames in the outside have the first 3 to 4 cms crystallised in some hives., the middle of the supers âre ok!! BUT...... Now the flow has started again, the frames that were half full of cured honey and now full of loose water dripping in your feet nectar.
We have to harvest what we can but dont have a honey drier. So its like shake out any loose nectar then uncap the rest. A really odd situation to be in.

But also to point out as B+ says, some colonies are slower to build this year and we think its because of the slowing down of the spring nectar 2 weeks ago and on top of that the very cold nights. However all colonies are strong to do some nucs next week, before the mini dearth starts for the next 5 weeks. another 25mm of rain this morning, may be we will see some sort of feed, who can tell!!

 

[pargyle]

Those extra few degrees we get in suburbia makes all the difference.
Spring flow around here is from trees which aren't much affected by short term droughts.
Still conker, sycamore & Hawthorne for them to forage on for the next couple of weeks.

Yes ... that's what it's like down here on the Costa del Fareham ... never seen so much blossom on the fruit trees, the horse chestnuts and now the sycamores are in blossom, lots of other stuff in flower as well. Put second super on all bar one hive this week as first ones pretty near full ... very dry - we've had no real rain for over three weeks now and it's a bit breezy but the girls are out and about ..

Last year they were busy eating everything they put away in April ... and managed to eat the lot !! Hopefully some nice spring honey this year.

 

[Tremyfro]

We are seeing pollen from the horse chestnuts coming in...the girls are out foraging. The wind isn't quite as cold today but far from even comfortable let alone warm!

 

[Millet]

Moisture is not a problem on my spot the willow plantation is on swamp land and the masses of wild cherry are in full bloom and the sycamore is just starting, i fear the low temperatures and that horrible NE wind will be my problem, however hopefully with this rubbish weather i hope the Rape produces no nectar.

 

[drex]

Surrounded by OSR but no rain to speak of for six weeks. That's what comes from living in the driest part of the country. Most hives bursting with bees but half a super on each if I am lucky. About 15 degrees here but chill wind. Had to do swarm inspections. One snelgrove 2 done. Two hives were, unusually, very feisty . They got a quick in and out.

 

[Tim.S]

We had 2mm rain for the whole of April here on the Bognor riviera, the bees are going well but stores are not great and the chances of a rape crop this year look about zero. Time to raid the buckets in store!

 

[Swarm]

Bees happy and doing their thing.

 

[masterBK]

Things must be getting bad as guard bees are attempting to stop the drones from re-entering the hives (got hundreds of drones clustering outside the hives under the mesh floors). Also saw this back in May 2012 when we also had a long spell of cold weather.

 

[Gwr]

Very little stores in my hives that I checked on Friday and I also noticed that the queen laying is also down compared to the huge brood patterns I had 4 weeks ago in all my hives, due to the lack of incoming nectar I assume.

I've added both liquid and fondant ambrosia to my hives and they are taking both down with incredible speed - the downtake of the fondant is quite shocking as some of the hives are already through to the top plastic of the bag already

 

[Erichalfbee]

Where in Wales are you GWR ?

 

[madasafish]

Yes, Spring has been dry here but a wet winter, heavy soil and lots of trees/shrubs mean we are not really affected yet. Hawthorn out end May here..

I have mulched everything I can in advance of a possible drought.

 

[Beagle23]

Very dry in SW London too. I was on the way to having 2 supers full a couple of weeks back but the bees are hitting the stores hard now.
I'm currently on a brood and 2 supers and they are chokka with bees