Look around, the weather has broken and we are coming into February.  Our bees are stretching their wings and cleaning out.

The activity around our hives is increasing and inside the bees are getting restless.  Most hives are low on food supplies and the queens are getting ready to start laying eggs.  The hives will need large numbers of workers for the spring honey harvest and the preparation is starting.  From what I have read on the ListServ, some of you are putting out pollen feeders. The bees are finding the pollen and carrying it back to the hive.  At this time of the year, the hives are experiencing food shortages. The bees will soon be finding pollen from the maples, crocuses, swamp cabbage and the list will go on; however, nectar will still be in short supply for a couple of more months.  It is often said that more hives die in February than any of the other months. It is critical that the hives have plenty of fondant, sugar shakes, or whatever else you may be feeding available until the nectar flow starts.

On another front, our association is also getting ready for the upcoming year.  Our short course will be starting very soon and, at our last meeting, we had in attendance new members who will be taking our short course this spring.  If any of our current members have an evening in which they may want to attend the short course you are welcome, though I will expect you talk to the new beekeepers and answer the questions they may have.

Our board is also planning out the year.  We are once again going to be involved with the University of Maryland’s Sentinel Hive Project.  I am hoping that some of the data we get from this project will be valuable to the project as well as to our members.

It is also that time of the year when we need to start thinking about our own hives.  Are we going to do anything different this year? Did we lose any hives over the winter that we may want to replace.  What supplies am I going to have to order in for this year? Do I want to do any splits? If so what do I need to do to prepare for this?  If you are like me, this is the time of the year I make most of my plans. I get excited and find that I always plan to accomplish more than I can and, of course, over the year I decide that something will have to be in next year’s plan.  

With that, I will leave you with your bees and your plans.  Good Luck with this year.

-Leon Vandenberg