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Author Topic: middle georgia weather  (Read 1793 times)

Offline 10framer

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middle georgia weather
« on: May 02, 2013, 12:40:01 pm »
tulip poplars started coming in a few days ago and i'm pretty sure privet is about to come in.  these are what i expect to be the two biggest flows in my area based off of what i've seen in the area.  we've been pounded by wind and rain and it seems to be in the forecast for several more days.  i've got wall to wall bees that are working hard when they are able but the last 60 days have been awful.
i had some queens that emerged over the weekend that will probably miss their window for mating flights.  l just crushed a couple that didn't get to mate from another round a few days ago.
i'm concerned that my production hives will end up getting swarmy on me as brood keeps emerging and the bees are stuck in the hive.  i'm also at the point that i'm considering just merging the splits that i killed the queens in back into other hives.
i'm taking next week off and plan on spending most of my time working at the farm (and maybe trying to hut the big gobbler that's been hanging out in one of my pea patches).  so maybe i'll feel more encouraged after that.
anybody else in the area getting frustrated?   

Offline sterling

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Re: middle georgia weather
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2013, 01:34:00 pm »
I'm not in your area but here in upper middle TN it has rained two to three days a week since the first of March and has been cooler then normal. My bees are way behind in building up brood and bees and I don't think our honey crop is going to be as good as normal. Every time something starts to bloom it rains for two days and beats the blooms down. I also started nucs with queen cells and the days the queens should have been mating it rained and turned cold with no bees flying. The frost also killed my tomatoes last week.

Offline 10framer

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Re: middle georgia weather
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2013, 03:35:16 pm »
yeah, the high is going to be 55 saturday. 
other than the tomatoes that's exactly what i'm talking about.  in january and february we were having warm sunny days and everything fell apart in march.  if things will break for one solid week over the next month i'll at least get honey but i'm not going to get any mated queens before july if the pattern holds like i think it will. 
1999 was like this.  the high never reached 90 til the first week of july, it rained at least a couple of days a week and then bam, heat indexes of 115 for the next 2 or 3 months.
sorry to hear about that sterling.  i haven't planted tomatoes because the weather has been so squirrely this year.  i'm going to check my corn this afternoon i expect it to be 6 or 8 inches tall by now.
rob

Offline AllenF

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Re: middle georgia weather
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2013, 04:31:36 pm »
My tomatoes were a little bit from the cold, but doing well now.   Everything is planted but the okra.   Cold and wet, I am wondering just how much will come up.   I think the cold and wet spring will have an effect on the honey this year.  Lots blooming, but just how much is getting tapped by the bees?

Offline RHBee

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Re: middle georgia weather
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2013, 09:12:05 pm »
I really don't know what to make of this weather. I just saw that the north is going to have show. I planted a small garden squash, tomatoes seem to be ok the oakra plants I put in not so much. I guess it will all straighten out. The bees might suffer this year.
Later,
Ray

Offline Georgia Boy

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Re: middle georgia weather
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2013, 09:14:18 pm »
Went and watched the girls this afternoon and they were all over the place. Wind very gusty. Yesterday and today a little on the chilly side. My garden has been planted for about a 2 weeks and everything is coming up including my okra. Its about 2 inches tall now. My potatoes broke ground Sunday in the rain. Just put my store bought tomatoes in the ground yesterday. Had some I started from seed I had put them out last week then it got cold and almost killed them. I think there are 4 left hanging on for dear life.

Keep having second thoughts about stopping feeding my pkg. Its been so chilly and windy. I see them bring in pollen but I'm not sure about nectar. My understanding is if a bee has pollen it goes into to hive when it gets back and passes it off inside the hive and if she has nectar she passes that off at the hive entrance. I haven't seen many passing off nectar outside the hive.

Weirdest darned spring I have seen in a long time.

David
"Give it All You've Got"
"Never give up. Never surrender."

Offline 10framer

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Re: middle georgia weather
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2013, 09:17:46 pm »
allen, that's what i'm thinking.  mine have drawn a lot out and filled some but they're probably wiping a lot of that out right now.  i'm worried the tulip poplar flow is going to get rained out.

 

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