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Spring Has Come to Kagamino

Yamada Bee Farm Beekeeping Division
Takayuki Ono

Probably because of global warming, I have a feeling that, while the previous heavy snowfall buried the beehives in the bee farm, the winters in Kagamino have recently become a little milder. Nevertheless, a cold wave from the end of January to the beginning of February was quite severe and the temperature sank to -8°C, which is rare for this region.
It was a little later than usual that the queen bee started to lay eggs, an activity that had been suspended in the winter. Although there is some difference from swarm to swarm, every swarm seems to switch to "spring" mode around the first day of spring. Although it is pitch-dark inside the beehive, bees can probably discern the subtle turning of the seasons by checking the temperature and the length of the day. The only bees that have managed to survive the winter together with the queen bee are the worker bees that were born the previous autumn. In the world of honeybees, they are "old women."
The queen bee is said to lay more than 1,000 eggs a day, during which time it consumes royal jelly. However, at the beginning of spring, there are no young honeybees to secrete royal jelly and the old worker bees can provide the queen bee with only small amounts of royal jelly. Thus, the queen bee is able to lay only a few eggs each day.

When the worker bees that were born first start secreting royal jelly, the season of full-scale egg-laying begins. At this juncture, we inspect each beehive and feed bees to stimulate the queen bee to lay more eggs. It is believed that the quantity of nectar collected by bees is proportional to the square of the number of worker bees. That is, if the number of bees doubles, the quantity of nectar collected by bees quadruples. We call the creation of robust swarms by increasing the number of honeybees inside a beehive Kensei (health revitalization). Feeding during this season is an important task that determines the quantity of nectar that will be collected in the peak period soon to begin.
Spring is a season in which the weather undergoes frequent change, as is clear from the fact that the weather pattern called the "Sankanshion" (characterized by the alternation of three cold days with four warm days), the spring rainy season, and the spring freeze all occur. Thus, just when one thinks the warm days are here at last, it can abruptly become very cold. We need to be very attentive to the weather in such cases. Because the queen bee has started to lay eggs, the quantity of food consumed in the hive increases dramatically. However, if the days in which honeybees are unable to fly out of the beehive are numerous, starvation may result or it may become impossible to keep the offspring warm. To prevent such unforeseen accidents, we carefully inspect each beehive keeping in the mind the fact they all have their own unique requirements.

In the rice fields in the vicinity, the green milk vetch leaves are gradually beginning to attract attention. We asked the nearby farmers to sow the seeds of milk vetch around the week that marks the autumn equinox. After having passed the winter, they are now starting to grow. If the harmful insect of milk vetch (Hypera postica) that is raging throughout Japan does not invade Kagamino, the surrounding fields will turn into a carpet of pink in just a month.
Beehives that have passed the winter in the southern region of Okayama Prefecture will soon be coming back to the bee farm near the milk vetch fields. The last year was the worst year we had ever experienced. The temperature was so low that it adversely affected the flowering period. And, even if flowers did bloom, only little nectar could be collected from them. I hope that this year will be one blessed with good weather.
It is increasingly becoming more difficult every year to secure a source of nectar. Today too, I am giving my bees the greatest care I possibly can to ensure that they will be able to make more honey by gathering more pollen from the milk vetch flowers.