Mid-Spring

It's mid-spring in early April.  The bees have made it through the winter and early spring!  The queen has begun to lay eggs in earnest.  The developing larvae are being fed a mixture of pollen and honey.  The pollen is mostly tree pollen from the budding trees.  However, there are many flowering plants that are also beginning to bloom adding a food source for the bees.  The nectar is beginning to flow and the bees are bringing it back to the hive where it is dried and allowed to ripen into honey along side of the remaining honey from last season.  Along with the worker bee larvae, drone cells are beginning to appear in anticipation of the swarms of late spring.  Hives will typically have a few emergency queen cells set up to rear a new queen should the current one swarm, grow weak, or die.