I removed most of the winter hive parts today, which means the straw bale windbreak, the tar paper covers and the quilt box and sugar box on each hive. I don't have pictures of those removals but did take pictures of the bees at the front of the hives before I got started. This is the bottom entrance of the north hive. I think it got up to 80 degrees so the bees were very active. Lots of flowers blooming now, and my pear and apple trees are just starting to come into bloom.
Bees were still actively using the top entrance of the North hive as seen here. When I opened this box up, the sugar box was completely empty of sugar but had a lot of combs built in it --four or five random combs with a lot of drone brood in them. I removed some of it and shook the bees in to the hive, but left the rest on and laid it aside on my unused stand so the remaining comb, which was attached to the bottom of the quilt box, would hang underneath, thinking the bees would leave it in the evening. However, when I checked it the next day there were still a lot of bees tightly covering the comb. I guess I should open the hive back up and remove those comb as well and shake the bees into the hive. I am a little concerned that the queen may be among them as they seem so determined to remain there.
The bottom entrance of the middle hive is the most active of the three as it was all last year. They are bearding a bit on the front of the hive even when the temperatures are only in the 70s. This hive also had no trace of the sugar that I put on in November, but had not built any comb in the sugar box. I suspect that this hive is packed full of bees and will be likely to swarm this Spring. I would be wise to have a plan to split it as soon as it is reasonable to do so -- as soon as there are enough drones flying and they are starting to make queen cells.
The South hive was also quite busy but not quite as much as the other two. This hive, too, had consumed all of the sugar that had been placed on the hive in November. There weren't a lot of bees on the top bars when I took the sugar box off, though, so this hive does not seem to have the population that the other two do. No comb in the sugar box. It does seem to be a healthy hive from the number of bees at the entrance though. I suspect that the mild winter had a lot to do with the unusually high sugar consumption as the bees were likely more active this winter than usual.
I need to get down into these hives when I have a chance and weather permits to get a better idea of how the queens and hives are doing, and to see if they need a honey super added. I also might want to switch boxes to move the cluster down in each box. I did get my first sting of the season. I thought I could remove the straw bales from behind the hives without attracting the attention of any guard bees, but one went after me as I was taking the last bale away and followed me 30 feet or so and became entangled in my hair, stinging me on the top of my head. I should have been wearing my bee jacket and veil.
