From the Fields - Caroline Yelle

By Caroline Yelle, Solano County beekeeper

With strong honeybees coming out of winter, we had a good bee survival rate, so we are super happy about it. This is probably related to the late rain we had last spring, which created better resources for the bees.

Almond bloom was better this year than last year, when we had few windows for pollination. This year, we had good windows of pollination, with three to four days of honey flow or nectar coming into the hives. Some beekeepers made almond honey, which is pretty rare. The honey from the almond is super dark and bitter. My mentor told me that 30 years ago, they used to make almond honey, but that hasn’t happened in years.

The honeybees were so happy in the almonds that we had to do swarm control. The bees built up their numbers fast, so I needed to make sure they stayed in the boxes and didn’t leave to find another house. I had hives stacked four high, when typically, we only stack them two high.

With a three-day window of dry conditions, my husband and I spent 36 straight hours moving bees into the almonds. At one point, it was 4 o’clock in the morning, and there were beekeepers out doing the same. One beekeeper was stuck in the mud up to the axle, so we stopped to pull him out. Beekeepers were looking for empty trucks and forklifts because available gear for moving bees was being used at the same time. Typically, you have a window of a few weeks or more, but those three days were intense.

Two weeks ago, we removed our bees from the almonds in Dixon, so I’m a little later doing that than other beekeepers. Because the bees are so strong, I will start splitting them to make more colonies as soon as possible. The first queens of the season are coming this week from the queen breeder, so I’ll be making more hives for the next month.