Flowers are blooming, nectar is flowing, and the bees are buzzing! Honey bees are always busy, but spring time may be when they are the busiest (which means so are we here at Koelle Tiny Farms!) Our Argonaut queen bees are making lot and lots of baby bees to build up their numbers and take advantage of the spring flora. This requires the worker bees to collect lots of colorful pollen. Pollen, which is high in protein, is fed to baby bees while they are developing. The bees store this pollen in the hive just like they do honey – in hexagonal wax cells they manufacture themselves. Bees collect pollen from flowers and pack in on their hind legs so they can fly back to the hive with it. These packs of pollen are often called “pollen pants” and you can see them in the picture below!

The “honey flow” will be happening in Denver the next few months. This mean that many major nectar sources are blooming and the bees have the opportunity to make lots of honey! Our job as beekeepers will be to make sure they have plenty of room in the hive to store that honey and to ensure the bees stay healthy.

We also love planting flowers in our yard for both honey bees and other wild bees. Some of our favorite spring bloomers include blue flax, crimson clover and pasqueflower!