This honeybee has been busy. She’s already got a load of willow pollen.
February 19…bees enjoy the willow blossoms along with robber flies and other pollinators.
A blurry look at a robber fly high in the Hooker Willow. See Michael Marlow’s comment below. “Hi Pat, just an fyi, those flies in your photos do not look like robber flies, but rather hover flies (family Syrphidae).”
Another robber fly on a plum blossom. See Michael Marlow’s comment below.
I’m not sure what kind of bee this is.
A gorgeous blue sky warm day…while the East Coast is getting battered with snow storms.
A look inside the little birdhouse bee hive with willow pollen being carried in.
This little bee hive is doing well despite being in a small space in the winter shade. I’ve got to keep the swarm if I can…it’s got good genetics.
Of course, the other hives are enjoying the willows too. Here Bee Beard has bees swaggering in with their bags of pollen. There’s something going on in the background. I can’t figure out what the bees are doing, but if you look at the video, see if you can tell what they’re doing.
Not to be outdone, Bee-atrice’s bees have been busy too, with a bee fanning at the entrance.
February 24…I visited Brian Vorwaller today. I just wanted to see the log standing upright. He thinks he can start on it next week.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
That blue sky and those flowers look marvelous! (My forecast for next week holds snow every day from Tuesday through Sunday.) Enjoyed seeing your video, too. Wonder what those bees in Bee Beard are doing. Group hug? LOL!
I felt sort of guilty bragging up our beautiful weather when your weather is so extreme. I hope it gets better soon for both you and your bees!
As always…so very fascinating and an enjoyable 6 minutes. 🙂
Thanks, Esther. I contemplated adding another couple of minutes of my incredible incompetence of dropping a box full of honeycomb while I was trying to swap it with an empty comb box, but I think I’ll wait to see if that hive survives in spite of my clumsiness. (That would have been even more entertaining.) 🙂
I set my timer for 6 minutes only. So any boo boos you add after that I won’t see. 🙂
Great to see things in bloom, alas we have some time to go, but the signs are there and we are counting the days 🙂
I’ve never been ‘snowed in’ before, but I can imagine it’s a bit of a helpless situation. You’ve got to hang in there having faith that it’ll warm up eventually. I hope your spring comes sooner than later, and I hope to see little Malina crawling around on the grass. 😄
I do enjoy your bee-vids! 🙂 I think you can tell when bees look happy and the bees coming and going from the entrances look like they are enjoying the year coming into bloom.
Yes, they seem happy coming and going from their little house, but it’s going to get cramped in a hurry come spring. I sure hope I can keep the swarm, because those genetics are valuable, having survived in the cool shade without getting fed or treated.
I saw Mayor Mary yesterday. I think she is almost willing for me to bait her second (matching) birdhouse to attract another swarm. I told her those matching birdhouses would look good on MY property and I’ll give her the cred for it. 🙂
🙂
It’s good to see the bees enjoying the blue skies and flowers. It will take a few more days for me to have a chance to see that over here. Bees can groom each other. They can also bite parasites with their mandibles and inject 7-heptanol which would paralyse a bug. Just a thought. You certainly have got healthy bees. I’ve heard that it has not been a good year for bees in France although it is too early to say for sure. I can see why you’s want to catch your swarm. Amelia
That’s interesting about the bees paralyzing a bug. I hadn’t known that.
Thanks for the thoughts about my healthy bees. I think it’s true for the hives that are remaining, but I have to admit that I lost two of my weak hives. Those were both Warre hives whose bees never built up. I ‘hefted’ the hives pre-winter to determine honey stores, but they were light in weight. I debated weather to feed them sugar or not and decided not to feed them. I’m not totally sure that was the right decision, but we don’t want to prop up weak hives. We are not having a harsh winter like the east coast. “If the bees can’t make it in a mild winter, maybe they shouldn’t be contributing to the gene pool.” Right or wrong, that is our thinking.
It is a very interesting point of view. It is a view shared by some people who would not treat against varroa feeling that the bees must develop genetic resistance to this parasite. I am sitting on the side lines at the moment absorbing the different opinions as I don’t have my own bees. I did not realise you had Warre hives too.
I love watching your bee videos, I learn so much and I am somehow soothed by them at the same time!
Hi Pat, just an fyi, those flies in your photos do not look like robber flies, but rather hover flies (family Syrphidae). Hover flies (also known as flower flies) are often bee and wasp mimics and typically feed off flowers and have a tendency to…hover (no kidding, right) in flight. Robbers are fierce predators that snatch other bugs out of the air, mid-flight. If you go on my site, on the menu and hover over “GALLERIES”, there should be one for each kind in the list to give you a good sense of the difference. Cheers, hope all is well.
Mike
Thanks for setting me straight on that, Mike. Here is the web site for anyone who wants to see beautiful up close photos of many kinds of insects and maybe get a more accurate identification.
http://bugphoto.net/