In the past few days we have been thrilled to observe many bees on their first "excursions". The above snapshot was taken on a windowsill of our new location in Hungary, where we had placed a few hyacinths. Fortunately, we could already observe thick pollen baskets on the hind legs of many bees. In glorious sunshine, the first flower catkins are unfolding at the moment, carrying up to two million pollen grains (per catkin). A wonderful and valuable food supply for the bees. And it's a nice feeling for us to experience the early spring already now, with temperatures around 12° Celsius during the day.
For us, this is the start of the first complete bee year at our new location, which offers ideal conditions for our research purposes. Already last year we did not extract honey from some colonies and are now looking forward to the first inspection, which will show how the populations have developed in comparison to colonies from which honey was extracted (supplementary feeding with industrial sugar). We expect the first results at the end of this month. The study is planned for a period of 5 years. After this time we will be able to show reliable results.
We wish all friends of the Foundation a good start into a year full of bees and much joy with our six-legged companions, who are so infinitely valuable for our lives.
Best wishes and be(e) good,
Klaus Heinzel