Signs of Spring

The weather has been a little variable over the last few days, but there have been some sunny periods and the bees have been making the most of it.  Here they are, a couple of weeks ago, on their first busy day after winter:

This worker bee has found a nice flower to forage on, at our local garden centre:

Further afield, up in Birmingham, I took this photo of a bee foraging on some heather:

... And even further away, I was at a cactus garden in Lanzarote last week, and saw this solitary bee foraging on a cactus flower!

There's plenty of blossom out now, which means nectar and - more importantly - pollen.  The bees will be raising this year's first generation of new workers, and they need the protein from the pollen to feed the new brood.

If the weather gets warm enough by the end of next week, I may be able to open the hives for the first time and see how well the queens are laying.