Some parts of the country are very bee-poor, I'm afraid. In your part of the country, you could probably see honey bees much of the year, so it is certainly not too early.

I assume that you've heard of the devestating bee decline in recent years, in this country and others.

The sad part is they can't figure out whats going with them.!!

I thought it was traced to thorax mites and varoa mites carrying diseases. It's been going on for many years, but isn't very well documented.

I had a friend in college that was an apiary inspector. There are a number of common issues- I'd guess that the ease of more widespread trade could spread diseases as well.

Google:

cell phone bees

One theory is that cell phone signals are interfering with bees. More towers mean less bees. New towers are going up every day. I hope it's not true.

I just read on the internet about a large die off of bee colonies in the Northeast. No certain cause I.D. yet. Very bad news! We are a couple months ahead of you here with the weather & they move boxes of bees to the almond orchards near here in Feb. At that time we had a warm spell whilst all the fruit trees were in bloom & All flowers were pollinated. I have been thinning fruit. I know the bees were here then, hope rest of year also. Good Luck

That cell phone theory is most likely entirely bogus. Especially since this newest problem with the bees (now called Colony Collapse Disorder) has actually been observed for many years. Long before cell phones. The phenomenon has been observed all over the world.

Most researchers are thinking that it is a combination of things, all of which combine to destroy the bees' immune system. Pesticides, as well as bacterial, fungal, and viral infections are suspected. The one factor that does not play into CCD is the mite problem, which is something else entirely.

The last I read is that nearly all of the dead bees dissected exhibited the same fungal disease. Whether this is the culprit or a combination of things is the question.

Rhizo- what exactly is foulbrood? Is it one of the diseases implicated in CCD?

Foulbrood is a bacterial disease that affects the larval bees. When infested babes die, the bacterium spores remain in the chambers....and continue to infest subsequent generations. What happens is that before too long, the bee colony can die out because fewer and fewer bees ever live to adulthood.

I don't know, but doubt that this is one of the things that they are looking at with CCD. In CCD, adult bees typically leave the colony and go off and die someplace else. Foulbrood affects just the larvae.

Gotcha. I saw a thing where they use dogs to detect it- evidently it has a distinct odor.

I read an article that debunked the cell phone/cell tower theory; I'll look for the link.

What I am doing this year is planting lots of thyme all over the veggie garden, even with the tomatoes, cukes, etc. Honeybees love thyme.

I think that the overuse of lawn chemicals has killed off a lot of bees. I don't use chemicals to kill weeds but one day I went out to dig up some dandelions and there were honeybees on it! I left the dandelions alone. I did some research and learned that honeybees and dendelions emerge at about the same time. If we kill off an early food source for the bees, that isn't helping them. We are not only leaving the dandelions, and buttercups, alone, but we've now named our place Dandelion Farm!

Julie

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Nerds