Along with brood production, spring pollen gathering is another good sign of happy bees.

Looking around it is not evident where some of this early pollen comes from, but on nice flying days they start bringing it home. The brood need their protein to grow big and strong.

First things first. Are the bees alive and healthy? Hopefully they are because then they can proceed to produce the first frames of brood to start boosting the bee population. Getting new bees is important as the overwintered bees get older by the week. This also lets us know the queen is not only present, but doing what she does best, laying eggs.

New brood is a good sign for the survival of overwintered beehives.

It is nice to start seeing good patches of brood here in March. The weather has so much to do with how the bees come out of the winter months. And Iowa weather can be crazy in March. Well, actually about any month. Look at Jorge's post on about the 14th.
Overwintered Bees 2010.
In the course of about a week our snow has vanished and this week we have had days in the mid-50s for temps. There have been years when the first week of April was still in the low 30s.

And with the brood of course comes the emerging young bees ready to carry out the seasons honey and pollination activities.

New bees will also help the hives survive should we get any more un-bee-friendly weather. There will be some tree pollen that comes about shortly, but it will be some time yet before the dandelions and nectar become readily available.

The bees look good this March. The overall death loss will be +20%, but there are a number of good-looking clusters that ought to split very well. Some of the larger hives have a couple of frames of brood underway already, and the temperatures suggest that the brooding will get going pretty quickly this year.

Here is one of the overwintered hives from near Prairie City:

We didn't really get out to the hives until the beginning of March. The temperatures never really broke out of the high twenties in February, and we usually depend on a warm snap in Feb. to get the hungry ones fed when it is warm enough for them to put down the feed out of a division board feeder (we have a DB feeder in every hive). We probably could have saved several large clusters by going around earlier--the larger population hives can take the syrup decently even in the upper twenties. It always feels horrible to have a fine hive that dies because you didn't give it enough food.

When visiting the Prairie City yard, I did get to indulge in one of my favorite early-year adventures--digging bees out of the snow Several of the hives in the middle of the line are totally drifted over and out of sight.

And below we have some pictures after I have had a good time digging out the bees. Notice how the heat of the hives has melted away several inches of snow around the colonies--I basically just took off the snowcap to inspect them

Luckily, the bees don't suffocate under the snow, and a number of people believe that the snow cover helps maintain a steady temperature that ultimately benefits the bees. Still, I have to think that those bees were ready for a cleansing flight after being shut inside for three straight months!!

Hopefully your bees are looking strong too, but if you are looking to order 2010 package bees from us at Ebert Honey, I'll offer a heads-up that truck space is running out pretty quickly. Good luck with spring beekeeping!!

So it has been a number of months since the last update in what has been going on in the bee world of Ebert Honey LLC. This is mostly due to the fact that I started to teach European history at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, so I have spent a ton of time developing classes since the middle of August, and the blog has been neglected since then. The good news is that our bees looked really good going into the winter--Alex fed them up for the winter months and we are hoping that good survival will give us more spring bees than we have ever had before. There have been some serious cold spells this winter, so we're also hoping that not too many got caught against the lid of the hives when it was too cold to move over to more food on the adjacent frames.

As usual, I am missing the bees the further we get into winter, so it will be a happy day when spring returns and the bees are active once more! Tree pollen and dandelion honey are always a welcome sight as the year gets rolling again.

In the meanwhile, Dad (Phil) is taking orders for 2010 packages as usual. Prices aren't set yet, pending news from California, but the truck seems to fill up earlier every year. Hopefully your bees will survive in good health, but let us know if you are looking for bees to pick up in April in Lynnville! (contact info at www.eberthoney.com)

The weather says it will be 43 degrees in a couple of days--but it also says there is a 90 percent chance of precipitation, so maybe the bees won't have the chance for a flight day. Fingers crossed for a warm weather break!!!!

(My life at Mount Mercy College)

I have good news for everyone that has visited the Ebert honeyhouse: Comet, the mighty beekeeper dog, continues to thrive.

Actually, Comet tends to stay out of the way whenever bees are concerned, but he never misses the chance to run ahead of the truck when we drive to the queen yard. Then he commences to play in the creek and grass until he hears us open the door of the truck.

Luckily, there is other good news that is more related to the bees. It finally stopped being miserably cool and wet. Yes, it seems that everyone except the beekeepers were happy about seventy degree weather in July. No, it was not good for us. It was starting to look like the short honey flow at the end of June and beginning of July would represent the bulk of our crop. It would have been even worse than last year. Now we're back into the eighties and sunshine, and the bees are very busy. It's anyone's guess how long an August flow will run in our area, but there should be several more good days for most of the yards. Fingers crossed! (Toes too...)

There is not a lot of Dutch clover still in bloom compared to June and early July, but the wetness has kept some decent patches going in scattered locations.

As we begin to harvest this week, hopefully the boxes keep getting filled. Today will be the third day of honey pulling.