BEE BULLETINS

photos: Near Guelph Ontario on May 3rd, 2009, a sunny +16°C between 9:00 and 10:00am.

My father likes to plant various nectar plants throughout his lawn and apiaries. Purple Grape Hyacinths look gorgeous and provide a much needed early nectar flow for hungry bees. After they finish blooming the lawn can be mowed as usual and the flowers return in more abundance each Spring.

photo: Honey bee foraging on Purple Grape Hyacinth (Muscari spp.).

photo: Honey bee foraging on Purple Grape Hyacinth (Muscari spp.).

In a shaded part of an apiary grows a patch of Ontario’s official provincial flower - White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum). Bees were busy collecting bright yellow pollen from the trilliums.

photo: A patch of White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).

photo: Honey bee foraging on White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).

photo: Honey bee foraging on White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).

photos: Near Guelph Ontario on April 11th, 2009, a sunny +7°C noon.

April 11th was one of the first sunny days of Spring. Some bees were foraging for nectar and pollen.

photo: Honey bees foraging on Siberian squill (Scilla siberica).

photo: Honey bees foraging on orange crocuses (Crocus spp.).

photo: Honey bees foraging on orange crocuses (Crocus spp.).

photo: Honey bees foraging on striped squill (Puskinia spp.).

photos: Near Guelph Ontario on February 8th, 2009; a sunny +1°C noon.

Spring dwindling is common, especially during periods of severe winter and extended spring. Older bees at the entrance of the hive are warmed by the sun, fly out, and are overcome by age, wind, and/or cold.

Spring dwindling is not to be confused with “Colony Collapse Disorder” or population dwindling caused by varroa mites.

photo: Over-wintering hives with dead bees in front.

photo: Dead bees in snow.

This is a slideshow of extracting equipment.

photo: Uncapped honeycomb.

This is a slideshow of colonies being prepared for transport to New Brunswick, Canada. The bees were sent to pollinate blueberry flowers and came back with some very delicious blueberry honey.

This is a slideshow of our booth at the Canadian Nation Exhibition from late summer 2008.  It was the third year that my brother, Tibor P. Szabo, and a group of Guelph-area beekeepers and friends took two weeks out of the end of the summer to educate Torontonians and tourists about Canadian honey bees.

photo: Fourth generation Szabo beekeeper.

Welcome to Bee Bulletins, a blog dedicated to promoting honey bees and honey bee culture.  My goal for this site and blog is for it to share a passion for honey bees and to aid the preservation and proliferation the Apis mellifera species.

One of my tasks in developing this site is be to give my father a place collect his published studies of honey bees.  Another purpose of this site is to promote sustainable beekeeping practices and to promote the distribution quality honey bee queens from my brother’s apiaries.  This blog is intended as an informal place for myself, family, and friends to share thoughts, ideas and resources.

Thanks for visiting, please beehive yourself!