It has been a few weeks of partial spring and although I've been peeking in a few times I wanted to check on them to seem how they were doing since we've had a few days of warm (almost 70's) and some cooler nights (lower 30's). I've heard that most hives can starve this time of the year because the queen starts laying, which equals more bees that need to feed - and although they might be bringing in more pollen - there's a tendency to 'burn through' their honey reserves and get in trouble. I had a friend over yesterday and it's always a good idea whenever you have a fellow 'beek' around to go through your hives together and see/compare what's going on - so here' what I found ..
H1 -
This is the single deep that got a new queen last fall and has overwintered well and she's been laying pretty well so far with approx 2 frames of brood and I've also been feeding it some Megabee a few times to get them built back up. Whenever I was in there about a weeks ago there was new brood about to about to hatch, more laid in various stages and still about 2 frames of capped honey. Whenever I went into them yesterday I found a busy hive with lots of pollen, and more brood laid - but no nector or capped honey. A problem. I was able to steal 3 frames of capped honey from the other hives and provide them some 'stores' for awhile. I'll check it in about 4 days to see how they are doing. They seem to be making some drone brood, but not excessively and the queen has about 4 frames to lay in now and some really good brood patterns so far.
H2 -
This is the hive that had 2 4-frame nucs sitting on top. 3 or 4 days ago I've moved/split up some of the brood from the right side to the left side to give them more room 'up top' and as I've been seeing brood in the lower left hand side. I'd been finding drone brood being made between the top boxes and below and thing that even though the space was 'normal' for double frames, it might have been the 'only' space they to lay it. I decided to break it down more to see what was going on, and am glad I did. What I found was almost 6 frames of capped honey still down below and not much room for the queen to keep laying. As this time is the year that you are supposed to 'reverse' the hive boxes if you have 'doubles', I decided to rearrange it. I took both 4-frame boxes off, rearranged the bottom box with most of the brood, added some empty frames to the bottom box, replaced the double 4-frame boxes with another brood box and moved the honey stores, some brood and empty frames up top. The queen should have about 7 frames to lay in now between both boxes so she should be happy for a bit. This is a good honey packing hive and really nice brood pattern so far. Queen seen and is looking healthy.
H3 - the angry hive..
This is the hive I'd added 4 frames of various stages of drawn comb into last week. They have started to work on this and drawn down and out some of those frames. I found 5 frames of honey in the bottom box and some good brood patterns in here also. I decided to rearrange this hive also by adding a couple more frames to the top box and moving the capped honey up and to the outside of the hive. In each of the hives whenever I rearranged them I left pollen and honey beside the brood frames so they wouldn't have to far to go for food. The hive wasn't too 'mad' yesterday which was good.
All in all a good hive visit, and manipulation. I need to leave them alone for about a week to give them time to adjust and keep going. It's still about 2 weeks out on our necter flow yet as best I can tell, and about 2 weeks before the other 'package' I order comes in so that should just about 'time it out' well. The forcythia in the yard should start blooming within the next week or so as well as the cherry tree we have by the house. Maples are blooming as well as American Elm so they have some pollen coming in. As soon as the the cherry tree looks like it's going to 'pop' - I'm going to make a split off of H2, and possibly H1. We are expecting to have 3 more days of clear weather and mid 70's this week, then rain mid week and cooling off to the mid 50's but the low's are still above freezing. I'll need to do a quick check on H1 by the weekend to be sure they are still 'good' with honey stores and might have to add some sugar water to them but the other hive should be good with 4+ frames of capped honey on them still. I also only killed 2 SHB yesterday so they are still around, but not 'bad' yet.
More later ..
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