Summer Brings Good Health to the Hives

Hurry up and wait seems to be the order of the day when it comes to honey bees and Colony Collapse Disorder.

There''s an old beekeeping saying that goes ... A honey flow covers a multitude of sins. That means the weather finally breaks and it''s warm enough to fly. It means millions of blooms finally begin to grow and bloom, and there''s enough to feed all of the adults and a rapidly growing number of immature bees. And suddenly the cares of the world drip away and the stress of everyday living lightens up in the beehive. When that happens the monumental growth rate of a colony of bees far outstrips the growth rate of the pests and diseases that haunt a hive ... and everybody starts to feel fat and happy and ready to rock and roll.

That''s kind of what seems to be happening right now. Talking to beekeepers all over during the last week has turned up essentially zilch in any form of CCD ... hardly any problems right at the moment at all, for that matter. It''s still dry in the southeast, and the season's main honey flow is nearly over there ... only sourwood remains as a major crop, and if some rain doesn't fall soon, there might not be much there. Waiting for rain is what everyone in the southeast is doing at the moment.

The Midwest is about on schedule ... though a late freeze took out some of the early honey crops like locust and some of the other early trees, but midsummer blooms seem on time and healthy, so far.

And out west, it looks to be dry again. So summer stresses will begin to weigh in on even a good honey flow pretty soon. And stress is the villain in most of the CCD problems. Add stress, lots of stress to nearly any problem and see what you get. You already know what it does in your life.

So it''s hurry up and wait ... wait for rain. Wait for the midsummer honey flow. Wait for research money. Wait for research results. Wait, like Vladimir and Estragon, wait and wait for Godot, it seems.