It doesn't happen often, but when it does snow we seem to get a decent covering.
March 2018: It snowed! We had a storm blow in from the East, across Europe and blasting it's way over the North Sea. It arrived early in the month and dumped a decent amount of snow, we don't see much normally but this was over 30cm in one go.
Bees Like The Snow......
“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! I find my honeybees can cope quite nicely with snow, what they really hate is the cold, damp weather we seem to have to put up with through our cold, winter days.”
I was lucky to be able to get out and enjoy a walk around a couple of our apiaries and as photography is my other great passion it was nice to take a few photographs.
Spring is on it's way, I've seen it!
No sooner than the snow had fallen, it was gone again.
That tends to be the norm for us here in Norfolk, UK. Being surrounded by water on all sides the temperature soon rises especially when the wind comes up from the south. The only problem with that is the snow quickly turns to water and we find some of our apiary sites start to flood. It's one of the reasons we keep our hives up on stands although I have had a complete hive lifted up and carried away into some bushes during one particularly nasty, wet period a few years ago.
The plants don't lie......
As the days lengthen and the warmth of the sun increases and hits the trees and plants around our apiaries, buds start to swell and flowers begin to open and that marks the start of a new period of growth, not only for the trees and plants but also for our honeybees.
Pollen and nectar flow and our bees are straight out and gathering food for their ever growing brood nests.
I took this photograph a few years ago and you can see how completely covered the honeybee is with pollen. It's one of my favourite honeybee pictures.