March honeybee package

Boy do I have some catching up to do. My last entry about bees was about nine months ago. I do want to summarize what has happened since then, but for now I just wanted to make a note that I installed a package today, March 30. It was from Georgia, naturally, and hope to be able to replace the queen later this year, but I hope it will give me an early start on the year. Unlike last year, this time the package is going into a hive with comb and a fair amount of honey. I have one medium of mostly empty comb and another medium with five frames of honey and the can of syrup. I even put a top feeder box on top of that with some honey.

I don’t think I will give them sugar syrup in the feeder box for a few more weeks. We will still get temperatures below freezing for a while and I have more candy, so I’ll go with that for a few weeks. I do want to stimulate their foraging instincts, but then I will have to give them 1:1 syrup until there are good nectar sources available.

I noticed today that the quince along my driveway has tight red buds showing, so they will be out soon. It feels like early spring to me now. The forsythia isn’t out yet which always seems to me to be the first real explosion of color. The crocuses and daffodils are out, but no other bushes or trees that I can see. I checked last years posts and noticed that I had pictures of quince flowers on March 23. That is a full week ago. I am guessing that the quince might be another week yet this year. Could it really be two weeks behind last year. Last year was the crazy short and warm winter, so I guess spring could have been two weeks earlier.