One of the great things about having an observation hive is that you get a peek into what's going on inside outdoor hives when it is too cold to do a full inspection.On February 26th I noticed this bee on the right doing a waggle dance. She thought she had found some pollen and was telling the other bees where it was. When there aren't any flowers in bloom bees will collect dust from odd places and treat it like pollen. I've seen them collecting sawdust and I've heard stories of them collecting most any dust.
As I was trying to determine what the substance is that the bee was treating like pollen my wife presented me with this wonderful picture on the left! The stuff the bee collected was actually pollen after all. Those bees really do know what they're doing after all.
And apparently Spring for a bee can begin as early as February 26th in Nebraska.
I was told that this flower is a crocus and they can bloom very early in the year, often through snow. I've not heard that they are an important source of pollen or nectar for bees but from what I'm seeing this year this is the pollen that will allow my observation hive to start rearing brood as they did not have any stored for the winter.
I have quite a few maple trees in my area that may be blooming already but when a maple blooms you won't notice it unless you are specifically looking for that. There's no missing a purple flower like this one as it pushes its way up through partly frozen ground.
