Weather, Hive activity & The Farmers' Almanac

It started raining Tuesday 9/12 in the late afternoon and continued until Wednesday 9/12 at 12/noon. During that time my rain gauge recorded about 1.25" of rainfall. This is great, since we've been in drought conditions for most of the Summer months. Just two weeks ago the average temperature was in the 90's for most of the day. Recently the temps have been in the mid-80's which is a much welcomed relief. Today the current temperature, as of 12:15 is a nice, cool & breezy 77 degrees (yeep-eeee). The overall trend has been a lot cooler with more rain in the past few weeks than we've had since early Spring.

All 4 colonies are extremely busy since the rain stopped. The area around the hive looks like a major airport with all the traffic in/out. I spent some time today just observing and I'm surprised that most bees returning from foraging are loaded down with pollen. I wonder if large pollen loads = large amounts of nectar? I sure hope so! The population of the colonies seem to be holding steady, if not increasing. I've decided to do an inspection later today and take some pictures which I will post later.

I can remember as a young child that my Grandmother used the Farmer's Almanac religiously. Since I've become more "in tune" with the weather, rain fall, etc.. I decided to grab the 2007 Farmers' Almanac. I'm going to use the calendars for planting nectar producing plants in the Spring for the bees & also a small vegetable garden. Additionally, I'm going to use the weather forecasts to plan outdoor events, etc.... According to the Farmers' Almanac their weather predictions are > 80% accurate. I would highly recommend everyone getting the 2007 edition of the almanac.