Spring like day here! Looked into the Hive..

Today it reached 65 degrees after 4 very cold nights down into the 20s. On Thursday I grabbed the hive and lifted it to check the weight. I thought it was getting light, bees need 10 pounds of honey a week when they are raising brood, that is 40 pounds for just February. With all the recent pollen that has been brought back to the hive I suspected the bees were raising brood so I was a little worried they needed syrup as a supplement.

I put on all the gear, gave them a little smoke and opened up the hive. The upper super had 3-4 frames of partially filed honey last I check in late fall, today 2 frames maybe half full of honey. The deep box in the middle was slap full of honey(10 frames) in the fall, today it was still full best I could tell.

This is a full frame of honey from the middle deep box. It came from the end of the box, bees fill the frames from the center and work to the outside. So we have lots of honey for the bees to make it through the winter still. Question is have the bees refilled these frames as they fed on the honey? Or have they subsided mostly on what they have found during warm winter days? Before I opened the hive I saw hundreds of bees bringing in pollen.

 Here is a bee gathering from a pansy flower in our garden today. It checked all the pansies at this planting and proceeded to check several crocuses. Bees are supposed to most of the time stick to one type of pollen source at a time, the bee did not utilize the crocuses.

This photos does not show real well that the entrance was very busy.

 Crocus ancyrensis "Golden Bunch" bloomed last year on January 23, it is only a week behind last year.

Here is  muscari "Golden Fragrance ' just getting started in the garden. This is the third year in the garden for these bulbs.

 Crocus "firefly" looking lovely.

 Woodland anemone

 Last from the Poets Walk parking lot yesterday! I got a big kick out of this bumper sticker.

Hellebores, spring and new bees

Yesterday I was driving and noticed yellow daffodils blooming right up the street. Then later found two places with Helleborus x hybridus in bloom red and white flowers were fully open.

Here at our place  Helleborus niger 'jacob' opened in late November then Helleborus foetidus opened shortly afterward. Now a few days ago Helleborus X ericsmithii HGC 'Silvermoon' has started blooming.

  Helleborus foetidus  from today, it is at least a third larger than last year. I honestly thought this plant was not going to make it, surprised me didn't it?

Helleborus niger 'jacob' you can see the seed pods maturing on these flowers. The seeds will not mature as this is plant is infertile and is produced by cloning.

Helleborus X ericsmithii HGC 'Silvermoon' 

The new camera failed on this photo, it does not do macro as well as my G11, but it zooms out for birds and the likeway better than the Canon  G11 and shoots better video.  

Last year I planted 3 of these HGC hellebores and we quickly lost Helleborus x ballardiae ‘HGC Pink Frost' and now Helleborus x ericsmithii HGC 'Winter's Song' is 1/10 the plant that purchased last spring. Just a personal note if you find your nursery with these cloned hellebores busting out of gallon pots, beware they might not survive on you. Most of these gallon pots had almost 50 blooms, just crazy.

Crocus in the garden, we now have 3 places with crocus ready to open up as soon as the weather warms back up. Yesterday a cold front moved in and the mid 20s will be the lows for the next 2 nights. So tonight we lit up the wood stove for the first time this year, currently the living room is a toasty 76 degrees!

Bees they are staying in the hive likely until Tuesday. I ordered another package of bees due in on April 14th for the new hive I built last fall. Also got better protection, a bee jacket with a zip in hat veil.  I lifted the hive on Friday and I think it might be down to 30 pounds of honey or less. So I'll be placing a new feeder inside the hive once it warms up to give them a little help.

My neighbor down the hill wants to set up 4-5 hives, so I might be helping him with that a bit. I also requested to be a beekeeper for 3 hives at an historic site in Durham, not sure if I'll get that, 1 hive is dead of the 3. The hives are not very far from Meg's school.

About the bird feeders here. Not seen a House Finch nor a Purple Finch yet, this is a first for us since we have had bird feeders. The Pine Warbler has been a no show as well, they are much less common at the feeders.  The Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers has been a common visitor, never seen them at the feeders before last year when they rarely visited.

 Oh yeah robberies and crime scenes. A family member got burglarized the other night, the front door was kicked in and jewelery and some change was stolen. The crime scene was here tonight, my man cave bathroom! Our cute little Valentine destroyed a bluejay in my bathtub, what a mess... The bathtub does not get used, yet she is in big trouble. Given we are in the woods we rarely see bluejays  here.