I'm visiting your fair state, Chariton, and was wondering if there were any beekeepers willing to talk bees. Looks like most of the local FB groups are pretty shut mouth about it.
Picked up a jar of local honey and it's as pure sweet clover as I've ever tasted. Something not available in Georgia.

I see hives all around but I don't know who they belong to. You're about an hour SW of me if you're in Chariton.

Good to know there's hives. Where there's hives there's honey.

Got me to thinking about the future. I'm looking to build my hive count and go mobile. Judging by the maple buds here y'all are at least a full month behind my area. Y'all got sweet clover which I don't have in Georgia.

If you say so. I'm not very well versed in plants, but I do like honey and my wife always buys from local sellers.

Now, I may have make homemade biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast Sunday just so I can have some honey on a couple biscuits.

Not in Ohio, but have a few hives. I am in Ontario, went down to 0F last night. Bees will come out for a poop on nice days but mostly stay balled up, protecting the brood and Queen. Havent opened the hives since November. Will check them late March , if the temperature goes up. Will supplement feed if they need it. Been making bee equipment , in the shop this winter. .For me it is a hobby. old243

I am 20 miles East of Chariton. Like ADC, I see hive boxes around but am not very versed in the Bee arts.

Red O’Hearn is in Iowa and has bees. I’m not sure if he’s around right now or doing control work in the south

Live in Ankeny, I have bees

I'm not in that area but up here in northeast Iowa there are a bunch. Fassbinder Apiaries is local one. My son's have worked there as well as my nieces and nephews.

When does the flow start here? Y'all ain't even gotten dandelions yet. Our's have been up for over a month now. We're seeing swarm cells in Georgia.
If I had to guess I'd say y'all have a flow that is more intense than ours.
Where I am we ramp up right now for a strong flow in March peeking in April ending first two weeks of May and that pretty much does it for the year unless you move bees north or south. North Georgia for sourwood or sumac or south for tallow but those are June/July only. Nothing until aster/goldenrod in September to frost in Oct/Nov. And the fall flow is light.

Well Iowa isn't too far south of me and I was ice fishing today....We drive on the lakes. About 22" of ice. It'll be a while before we get a flow here...or even see danilions. I'll be happy to just be able to crack my hives In this warm up this weekend to check feed supplies. This time last year I had to dig down into the snow to get to a few of my hives. Feeling pretty good this year with a LOT less snow. An early spring would really help. We lose a lot of bees in March some years. Winter just gets too long for some hives.

Late Jan to mid Feb is our starvation time. Even though red maple blooms then if a colony has dwindled it'll die then. Our mild winters are harder on them than a cold one. If it gets cold and stays cold they sip their stores. Winters with lots of flying weather they burn through stores looking for nectar that ain't there to be found.

This is who I was going to say about also , he have hives on my place and I get my honey from him also.

I wonder about this. And how it applies up here when we do have a mild winter. A mild winter here, they don't get out to forage ( might go 4 months without a cleansing flight) but are not really dormant inside the hive, either....so they consume more. One issue we have here, this far north, is as winter goes along, the cluster shrinks...Shrink enough and not enough BTU's put out to keep them warm... then Ka Poot.

Of course many many factors involved in winter success rate but what would you say you're typical dead out % is normally per winter? Last year I had a 28% loss. This is far better than many had. The year previous the U of Wisconsin stated a 80-100% loss in one particular county in WI. University bees included. Mine were at 80% loss that year (I made some adjustments after that).

Of course the north and the south have far different variables when it comes to over wintering.

I just have a few hives and probably am poking around , checking them oftener, than someone with a bunch. 2 years ago I had 5 hives and lost two , think they starved out . Last year had seven hives and they all survived. Wintering in double deeps, 8 frame. Well wrapped. Going into winter I have 10 hives, I fed them heavy last fall after the supers were taken off , using fat bee man , type hive top feeders, till they quit using it. Sugar water contained tea tree oil and winter green oil. Supposed to control Nosema (diarea), which I think kills a few hives late winter.. Early spring will put a piece of paper partly across frames and feed dry white sugar, till freezing is over, then go back to liquid till a flow starts. My mentor who has about 60 hives lost 15 in 2019.

Yeah, Nosema does seem to kill a few.

Any other bees around yours, Old? Seems my mite load can vary quite abit depending on who's around me. Some seem to raise more mites than bees.

That seems to be a problem in my area. Another reason I want to get mine relocated.

Lappes bees supply is pretty close to Chariton I beleive. Red Ohearn is about an hour or 2 away. Most of our honey comes when yellow sweet clover blooms in the road ditches. We get two flows - sweet clover and then late August to Oct is golden rod/aster depending on rains. If you never have smelled a midwest hive on the second flow you are missing out - very much smells like sweaty gym socks......but I love the stronger aster/golden rod honey,

The golden rod is definitely my favorite. TrapperTom always hooks me up when he comes over in the early fall. Great for a sore throat or cough too. LLL

since it was in the 40's yesterday i looked at a couple hundred hives to make sure ive got my numbers right for number of nucs selling. still snow on the ground, not much and suspect it goes away with the forecasted rain for early in the week. but then the temps drop back into the 20s in day and single digits at night, long ways until "bee spring" here. we arent out of winter and into spring until dandelions at the end of april/first week or so of may.

have you ever migrated? not sure what the "climate" is like in iowa at the moment but lots of states are in a wild wild west show at the moment. be careful where you go