On Sunday Mar 20, the first day of spring, it was sunny and warm and the bees were flying. We saw them on the heather and I decided to look inside the hive and see what was up. It was just like the pictures in the beekeeping books: the bottom brood box was totally empty, and all the bees were in the top. They still have a lot of honey.
There were hundreds and hundreds of dead bees clogging up the screen bottom, so I took it all apart for spring cleaning. I was surprised to see so many dead bees in the bottom of the hive, after seeing all the ones thrown onto the porch all winter long, but there seem to be plenty of bees still alive and goin strong, so im not worried.
I switched the boxes so that the empty one was on top and the full one was on the bottom just like the book says to do. I didnt pull out more than a couple frames so i didnt observe any eggs or brood, just a lot of honey.
Right now it is sunny and beautiful and the bees are flying. I see them going into the hive with different colors of pollen, and everything looks normal from the outside. Next week the hive should perhaps be more carefully inspected, to check out the brood pattern, maybe look for the queen again. I feel confident she is in there doing fine, just because there seem to be a lot of bees, and they are acting normally.
Yaaay! This is awesome great news, thanks for that housekeeping. (Where'd you dump the bodies? I wanna save some for an art project. ;)
ReplyDeleteHow are the frames holding up? I might be going through Richmond once or twice in the next week and I can stop by the apiary and pick up some more frames or wax base if they're starting to look yucky and old or the wood is fragmenting.
I'll come by on a sunny day next week to take a peek if that's good for you folks.
Happy spring to y'all!
Best,
-=pj=-
I just dumped em on the ground, it's been raining so I doubt theres much left of them but I'll have a look.
ReplyDeleteThe frames look ok far as I can tell, but having a few spares is a pretty good idea. Since we plan to split the hive by taking a few frames of brood and honey, we will need something to replace them with. I didnt think about that until just now.