It's nearly April, the clocks "sprung forward" last weekend, so what happens? 5" of snow fell yesterday!!! And it's quite cold, above freezing as I write this, but only just.
As I put full division board feeders on the hives last weekend (for the first time this season), I thought I really should get in and top them up this weekend. The weather wasn't great in the week, so today (Sunday) was the only chance I have had to look in for a week. It was cold, but warm enough in the sunshine, and there was no wind. No bees were flying.
I opened up the hives and both had a healthy number of bees. I was told of a trick in the week. If you open up the hive, wait 30 seconds, but add no smoke, a 'ring' of bees should appear on the top of the frames and this will tell you the size of the cluster. My girls are on about 5 or 6 of the 9 frames in the top deep. Nice! They were also very calm about me opening the hive.
So how much feed had they consumed? This week as I said has seen some been poor weather - cold and wet - and so it was not good conditions for foraging, flying and collecting pollen, and sure enough, the syrup I added last week was pretty much gone. I had to fill feeders in both hives which is about 3.7 litres (OK a US gallon). The hives are certainly cracking on now, and with a couple of weeks before the queens arrive this is good news. I will definitely have to inspect the hive during the week to see how quickly the syrup is being eaten. They could be going through a gallon in just 3 or 4 days!
My nucs are being painted and will be ready to receive brood. Anyone interested?
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