Finally the weather cooperated last Saturday - warm, dry and only little wind. I took the plunge and worked through the two hives I have at home and the one just around the corner. I hadn't been through these hives since the fall so I was interested to see what had been going on.
I started with my old "Blue Hive". This produced a large quantity of honey last year and went into the winter in two deeps. I lost the original queen in July and replaced her with a new "local" Illinois Queen in September. I wasn't sure if she had enough time to bring the numbers of bees in the hive up to a sustainable level for the winter but as the bees had been active on warm winter days, I was happy enough although it wasn't really much to shout about! When I opened the hive I found a small cluster of bees in the top of the top box. I did see the queen and I saw that she is beginning to lay. It's a bit of a slow start but a start. There weren't too many stores and the bottom hive box was empty. So I reduced this hive down to one deep and added some 1:1 syrup.
I moved on to my so called "White Hive". This went into the winter in three deeps and had been showing a great deal of activity throughout the winter. Lots of bees out and about at any and every opportunity. Of late they had been really busy. So I was expecting to see bees in the top box, perhaps the top 2 boxes, but to find them in all 3 deeps was very surprising and not a little alarming! Fortunately I saw no queen cells but I did see a couple of queen cups being built. Are they beginning to get out of hand? I want to reduce the bees to two deeps but what is the best way? Well, as the hive next door is a bit weak and could do with some bees I think it would be a good idea to donate a deep of bees to this hive. Of course without their Queen! I stuck a Queen Excluder between the top and middle deeps and in a couple of days I'll go though the top deep to see if I can see any new eggs. It's just too busy to spot the Queen! If there are no eggs then I can be pretty sure the queen is not in this deep so I can move the whole box over to the weaker hive. I'm not sure if I need to but I may put a sheet of newspaper between the two boxes just so the bees don't mix too quickly. I'd hate for the new bees to kill the queen that's in there now, especially as she is a new queen.
Finally I went through my old City Hive. This had been moved not least because it was very defensive in its old location. I was expecting the bees to be more than a little weary of me but I was surprised. They seemed quite calm! I found about 3 frames of brood in the top box and some stores. They look in good shape! I nevertheless managed to reduce this hive to a single deep and will likely have to add a second in a week or so. I think I may "store" the old deep above the inner cover just for now and allow the bees to do what they want. The inner cover should stop the queen moving up into it.
So it was a pretty good day for looking at bees! It's seems a long time since I looked to see what my girls had been up to! And it was nice to get back into a groove with them. Oh, I think I will also have to come up with better names for the hives this year!
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