This has been an excellent year for bees in apple pollination in this area. The temperatures climbed into the seventies and eighties for a number of days, and the colonies are jammed with apple pollen. They are also packed with lots of new brood and a fair amount of honey. I split the strong colonies before going into pollination, and they will need split again as they come out two weeks later. Here is an image of some really nice single colonies that were helping set this year's fruit (I gave them a second hive body two or three days ago): There are another twenty hives to the right of the pallet in the image, and they all look very strong. Hopefully the buildup will translate into lots of apples in the orchard and lots of bees to make honey later in the year.