I pulled the mouse-proof mesh from the hives today and cleaned out the dead winter bees with a stick. The bottom entrance for the foundationless hive was blocked with dead bees (mostly drones, I’m guessing). I’ll post a video of that later. I inadvertently noticed bees from one of the hives bringing in pollen while I was at it. I looked around and saw these flowers — Crocuses, I assume — poking up through the dead colourless leaves and sticks around the front of our house.
First flowers of 2012. (April 11, 2012.)
I couldn’t get a good photo of the bees bringing in the pollen, but if you look at the anthers inside these flowers, that’s the exact colour of the pollen the bees were bringing in.
Crosuses. (April 11, 2012.)
I didn’t notice the bees bringing in pollen last year until April 13th. Way to go spring. It was almost 20°C when I took these photos.
