April showers bring… Honey Pie

Well we are still feeling the effects of the record breaking Nor’easter here on the Cape. The spring temperatures continue to be below normal for this time of year. These colder spring temperatures are hard on the Bees. When temperatures tip below 40 degrees the bees start to cluster. Not much work gets done, and the colony certainly does not expand.

A worker bee bringing pollen an nector into the hive

Fortunately I was able to check the hives prior to the big storm and replace any pollen patties or food that may be required. Even with the rain, if the temperatures climb above 40 they will be able to feed. One hive which has been weak all spring, continues to dwindle in numbers. The cluster is down to only one and a half frames of bees. If it does not warm up soon I don’t know if they will be able to survive.

A nice shot of one of my bees with pollen on his hind legs

The bees were flying the Saturday before Easter, and I was able to take a few photographs of the bees bringing in some much needed spring pollen.

The weather has been so cold that the bees have not taken any of the sugar syrup feed that was place on the hives the end of March. Our shipment of new bees has been delayed a week due to the weather. This will give a little more time to prepare the required equipment.

The weather forecast is predicting warm temperatures this weekend.

My wife's Honey Apricot Pie

On the positive side, the bad weather has encouraged some cooking and baking on the part of my talented wife. For the Easter holiday she prepared a unique honey apricot chiffon pie with chocolate and almond bees. There were many steps involved but as you can see the pie came out beautiful. The best part was that it tasted better than it looked!

It makes you almost wish for more rain so there will be more baking.

But I’m not!