Is Locust Honey season upon us?

I just got so excited this afternoon when my wife spotted the first Locust blossoms budding and blooming! I have been looking forward to this for months- enough to name my steemit handle after it. If weather conditions are right and the bees are in good health, they can bring in oodles of locust honey in a week, which would certainly take the pressure off of our business in several ways.

For one, there are a bunch of colonies that are struggling for survival. they just won't get stronger and I don't know why. it's like as soon as the queen lays eggs and they grow a few days old, they die, and the workers throw them out and clean their cell and the queen tries again. they never seem to progress beyond that cycle and they are too weak to get honey. If they can manage to bring in new nectar, sometimes, it works as an antibiotic and the disease is stopped and the colony starts growing again. I saw 3 hives get better while working apple blossoms last week.

I have so many pictures to show you that I cannot get off my camera! 3 weeks ago I was introducing new queens to splits and observing to see if the bees would accept her. It gave me goosebumps to watch the workers make up their minds and finally decide that this is their new Mother.

I have also made many splits with queen cells that the bees made themselves. so far I do not think a single hive has swarmed (I manage over 200 hives) but on the other hand I have not seen or heard of many wild swarms either. last year was a rough year for forage for the bees, and this winter was harsh, and this spring took awhile to warm up. these are the things that a beekeeper stresses about.... So many variables!

I did have the good fortune to capture this beauty though! they are a powerhouse! a week after I put them in a new hive box they had the foundation mostly drawn and filling it with food and brood. I have high hopes for them. that is the only swarm I have seen, and I have only heard of one other swarm all spring. last year I was catching several swarms a day. "You never can tell with bees..."

One of the locations where we have twenty hives or so is an old abandoned granite quarry that forms a hide-away shielded from wind. there are little caves all over the place and I have been wondering if they might house a bear. I climbed up to investigate and found a great pile of fox scat!

I have a longstanding connection with foxes. Somehow I feel like I belong in their world; the in-between places, the underbrush, the little hidey-holes, the mountaintops and highways and hedges and abandoned spaces forgotten by humans. I feel priviledged to be able to witness the mysteries of nature on such an intimate level.

Here's hoping that all I do this week is give the bees supers to put locust honey in, and all they do is fill them up as fast as they can fly!