February 28th, 2024
We’re having a weirdly gorgeous 68 degree day here in west MI so I went out to check on my hives. I added a small piece of a pollen patty last week to get things going a bit, and I mean a small piece. The key to adding pollen patties is to coordinate the popping of the maple tree buds with the emergence of a now larger population of worker bees. So, in bee math terms, you want to time the next batch of brood “births” to coincide with the first maple tree in buds in the spring. So roughly 21 days before the second week in March here in MI. I put mine in on the 18th of Feb. so there will be a new bunch of mouths to feed by March 8th. In MI the Silver Maple starts to produce pollen in late February, early March, and I noticed yesterday the girls were already coming in with pollen! You don’t want to go too heavy on the pollen patty either because it could create too much brood and trigger a swarm on the first nice day in March or April. I really just put in about 2 Tablespoons per hive smooshed between wax paper with slits cut in it. They don’t care for it when it gets too dried out, so that is another reason I don’t use very much at this time. Also be sure that you have a good supply of sugar blocks or fondant this time of year as well. They may be starting to run out of honey/syrup supply and with the warmer weather, are also breaking cluster which means they will be up top chowing down on all that sugar, so check weekly starting now until temps are steady in the 50’s and nectar and pollen is plentiful.
Also yesterday, my dog Cody decided to terrorize my neighbors chickens who were out for a stretch and managed to corner one, grab it ,and run home proudly to show it off. Luckily, the hen is ok with just a broken leg and some feathers missing from her butt. This reinforced the idea I’ve had for a couple years to get some chickens and ducks and get the dog socialized and trained not to chase them. I assume this can be done, but if any of you out there have any suggestions of how to do this , please let me know!
Pollen patty between wax paper. I divided this up into four squares.
This is mixed with some heavy syrup I had leftover from fall. Basically, this is the consistency you want- moist but not runny.
Traumatized hen.