It’s been a tough winter for our bees in the STL region. After a bit of a spring warm up in January that included some pollen collection to stimulate an early first round of brood production in 2021, mother nature hit hard with an extended colder than normal weather pattern in February. The hives that survived were able to abandon that first round of brood during the cold temps and keep the adult cluster fed and warm. As they start brood production back up and rebuild hive numbers let’s hope the weather holds and we don’t loose this second round of brood for 2021!
Check out the recent blog by the Bee Informed Partnership for some great tips including some on what to do when encountering a “dead-out” colony:
Beekeeper Best Management Practices (December 19, 2020 by Jeri Parrent)
https://beeinformed.org/2020/12/19/beekeeper-best-management-practices/
Contributed by Tim Fredricks
March 6,2021