Finally got a day when it was warm enough and I was free to do a full hive inspection to see how the bees came through the winter. The small "nuc" hive (the green one) didn't make it and I did not expect it to, as it was a very small cluster established very late in the season in September.
This is the bottom board of the North hive that shows quite a bit of bee activity with bees flying.
The top entrance of the middle hive shows some activity but is probably the least active of the three large hives. The bees use the top entrance on the two southern hives primarily but the bees in the North hive seem to never use the top entrance. I'm not sure why this is.
The top entrance of the South hive is more active, perhaps because its on the south end of the row so gets more sun and warms up faster. This has been a pretty active hive on warm days during the winter though.
Each hive has two smaller boxes on top. The top one is a "quilt box" that is just a box with cedar bedding in it. This serves to insulate the hive to some extent and also helps to absorb moisture. The next box was a "candy box" which was filled with a 16 pound block of sugar in November and left there for additional food supply during the winter. This shows me lifting up the quilt box to look into the candy box. The sugars seems to all be gone and the bees are building comb int he empty space. It is good to see that the bees are active and in comb building mode. I think that this shows that the hive is strong.
Here is a clearer picture of hte comb being built in the empty candy box.
Here is a frame of capped honey from the North hive. The bees have consumed all of the sugar I added but they still have a lot of available food supply to make it through the balance of the Spring. Nectar flow will be starting soon.
This frame from the North hive shows lots of brood, showing that the queen is actively laying and building up for Spring. This is another sign of a strong hive and good queen. This is the beginning of this queen's third year so she is near the end of her useful lifespan.
Another frame from the North hive showing lots of capped brood.
This frame shows more brood in the North hive and shows brood that is both capped and uncapped. The uncapped brood shows that the queen has been laying within the last week so I know that she is most likely present, though at this time of year she wouldn't have been likely to leave in a swarm.
This frame from farther down in the North hive is full of pollen, a protein source for the bees essential for their Spring buildup. This confirms what I have seen at the entrance with bees bringing in pollen on their legs. Most of the pollen is a tan color that is most likely from maple trees -- one of the first pollen sources in this area.
A peek at the middle hive candy box shows that there is a lot more of the sugar block still present though most of it is eaten. They eat this first from underneath so much of the white sugar area is eaten out below. These bees have also built some comb on the bottom of the quilt box above the empty space in the candy box.
Here is a frame from the middle hive showing lots of capped brood. This hive appears also to be strong, though not as strong as the North hive.
Another frame of brood from the middle hive showing a pretty solid brood pattern.
The inspection of these first two hives was about all that I was up to that day. I took off the tar paper wrapped around each hive for insulation and warming, and took off the quilt boxes and candy boxes. I left the candy box in front of the middle hive because it was full of bees that I could not shake out and I wanted to give them a chance to make their way back into the hive. I have also taken off the metal barriers on the bottom entrance of each hive that was there as a mouse guard. Mice won't be entering hives this time of year. Removing the candy box takes away the top entrance, which confused the bees in the middle hive for a while.
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