Spring Pollens - My favorite time of year!

The spring pollens will be flowing from the trees soon. The bees have been bringing in plant pollens aggressively in the south for the past month.  The reported pollen counts on the nightly news have been climbing, and they will only climb higher once the trees start blossoming. 

Although many suffer from the high pollen counts, it is a favorite time of year for me, and the bees.  The excessive pollen that is produced is a time for the honeybees to get to work. You see, pollen is baby food.  The main reason honeybees bring in pollen is to feed young larvae.  The abundance of pollen in a colony is a sign for the hive to start laying young, to start growing for the honey flow.  Sometimes the bees bring in so much pollen, they leave little room for the queen to lay.  This is one of the reasons for spring swarming, we call it pollen bound. It is one of the many jobs for a beekeeper, to make sure the colony has room for the queen to lay eggs.

Late hot summers and dry weather slows up the pollens being produced and brought into colonies. The lack of pollen being brought in then slows up brood production in a colony. They do not need the high populations to gather nectar, so the size of the colony will recede. 

Yellow, red, purple, white, black, green, orange.  No, not the colors of the rainbow, the color of various pollens being brought into the colony. Cars covered in pollen dust. Yellow rivers of water flowing when it rains. Love it.  Honeybees Rock!