re: 2023 Spring Garden Thread

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Why do you think you're about to lose your hive?

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Bees often “beard” on the outside of the hive for one of two reasons. Either it’s too hot in the hive and they’re emptying the brood chamber and hanging out outside in order to provide better ventilation inside, or they’re preparing to swarm and are outside waiting on the queen to leave the hive so they can follow her.

It’s been warmer lately. But I do not think it has been hot enough for the former. I’ll have to open the hive and see. I meant to go out this morning and look before work but I was running a bit late. If it’s the internal temp, they’ll go back in the hive at night when temps cool down. Last time they swarmed on me they stayed outside all night and all day.

I put a Corbaci and a Shishito pepper plant in a couple of big pots I have in the back yard. Checked them this morning and a squirrel had buried both of them. I let my dog know if this happens again she will fired from guard duty.

I moved all my colonies from my camp 60 miles away, to 6 miles from my house the past 2 days. Just got done checking them out. I have lots of drones already walking comb, lots of drone brood, swarm cups on frame bottoms. We may get a cold snap, but the bees are showing me activity I normally don’t see till March. Redbuds are already blooming and some oaks (Brandon, MS). I’ll start grafting for queens next week for splits or I’ll have a lot of bees in the trees. Here’s to a great honey flow





Perfect frame. Brood surrounded by a band of pollen and honey. Tons of pollen has been coming in.

I am tempted to plant some green beans in an effort to have fresh green beans for Easter weekend.

No bearding this morning. So they may just be getting warm in the afternoon. Gonna open them up this afternoon and see what’s up.

Yeah with a reducer on and inner cover flipped I could see it getting warm in there. I took my reducer off last weekend and started an Apiguard treatment on Tuesday. They have been hanging out of the hive a bit more since then. I don't think they appreciate the thymol.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get them to completely build out the bottom box. They favor the west side. Probably because the box sits between a fence and the house and the fence blocks the morning sun so it tends to be warmer on the west side. I guess I should shift the brood frames all the way to the east side and empty frames to the west making them more likely to draw out those couple that are left?

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I like it though. Really drops the mites.

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Yeah, I'm not sure if it was needed but wanted to be safe. Last mite count I did was in January and less than 1%. I'd like them as strong as possible this spring since I plan on making at least 1 split and would like to harvest some honey this year. I got my hive late May last year and just let them do their thing year 1.

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I like to center the nest in the box.

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They were originally centered and worked their way west as the summer went on. I guess I could always re-center and throw a food frame on the west end with an empty in between like you said and swap around as needed.

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I rub wax on my foundations.

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I did this in the fall as well. Seemed to work just fine. Just keep the bur comb I scrape off and rub it on new foundation like a crayon. I definitely wouldn't do it if I had a lot of frames but it is easier than melting for me right now.

Fradella finally posted his long range weather outlook. When he said winter isn’t through yet, it looks like he was referring to mid March. It’s based on LRC modeling. I had to look that up. Lezak Recurring Cycle. Apparently some meteorologists swear by it and some don’t buy it. But he said “wait until after winters last chance to plant.” So that’s something to keep an eye on. For those unfamiliar with Zack Fradella, he’s at Fox 8 in New Orleans.


For me, when that week comes closer I’ll be really eyeing the forecast. Cause these darn things will need to go in the ground ASAP. I just got finished putting the rest of the tomatoes into larger pots.

If we do, just be prepared to cover them.

I did a bunch of work in the garden today. I sweat my arse off. It was hot. Hard to imagine we’d get more winter weather after that.

Got the cattle panel up, the tomato stakes and cages up, and I cleaned up all the rows.


Last weekend I fertilized the blueberries and blackberries. The blackberries are full of flowers and leafing out. Even have some new canes starting to shoot up.


The blueberries are finally starting to leaf out. They also have quite a few flowers. These were just planted in the fall. I have a Premier, Climax, and Tifblue. My awesome wife (no pics) is going to make me some tags with her laser to put on the side of the box to label which variety is which.



Strawberries are doing great. Full of flowers and berries.


I went ahead and sowed some zucchini and yellow straightneck squash seeds. Also got some in pots under the light in the garage along with some sunflowers.

ETA: I’m sad to report that I did not get around to opening up the beehive. Seems like I had a million things to do today. Good news is I got just about everything but that done. Tomorrow I have no excuses. Definitely going to open them up. But I did open up the bottom screen to allow some air flow and they haven’t bearded all day.

The LRC has been pretty good for watching trends in the long range models to see what is fantasy and what to watch closer. If it calls for a cold blast in March, I’m paying attention.

There is some discrepancy between those that follow on the length of this year’s cycle though. Some, like Fradella, say it’s around 30 days. Others argue it’s 60-ish.