I saw my first local flower of 2022 in our lawn today. I was on my way to look at the bees and happened to see a couple flowers of creeping speedwell, or Veronica filiformis. This low-growing plant is well adapted to typical lawn care practices, so is considered by some to be a pesky weed. I celebrate it as a later winter flower that provides some early food for bees and other insects.

It is February – the calm before the storm. Bees are growing and just waiting to burst forth once warmer weather and flower blooms arrive. Beekeepers, meanwhile, are thinking about what equipment they need for the coming season. Should I order more boxes or more frames? Spring is coming.

One chore I have not undertaken before is the cleaning of frames. Last year and I should have done it, and this year I really just need to. After five years I can no longer put it off. I have some time next week and am hoping to make this a priority. Turns out it is not a fun activity, removing wax and propolis to clean and ready a frame for a new season. An image of each is shown in the picture.

This past week we had a brief bout of warm weather. It was an unusually cold January, and last Wednesday we had a day over 50 F (10 C). The bees were very excited and the photo shows what I found in front of the hive I call Eris that afternoon.

I was outside in the cold and snow today, thinking about the bees huddled in their hive and how the yard would be full of flowers and nectar fairly soon. Our weeping cherry (Prunus subhirtella) tree typically blooms in early April. It has a somewhat awkward winter shape, kind of all over the place with the small branches that will eventually hold spring flows hanging down.

It has been a weekend of cold, wind, snow, ice, and rain. Hopefully the bees are clustered and warm. Today a picture from the corner of my bee yard. You can see the hives covered with snow inside the fence.

May you prosper and find honey.

Today’s photo is a picture of the hive entrance to my top bar hive Saturn. You can see how the bees have blocked off part of the entrance with propolis. They often do this if the bees decide they don’t need as much room during the winter. The smaller entrance protects the hive from wind and helps keep potential intruders out.

Welcome to a new year, hopefully a bit better than the last one. I thought I would try something new, given my dearth of posts this past year. I plan to post a short status and a picture or two at more regular intervals, and we’ll see how this goes. Today we had our first real snow of the season, so I thought it would be a good time to begin.

I have 8 hives overwintering, including two nucs insulated for the winter and four 8-frame Langstroth hives. You can just make out the other Langstroth hives at the top of the photo. I cleaned off the entrances to allow better air flow into the hives.

I also have two top bar hives, which are shown below.

May you prosper and find honey in the new year.