To cold for Spring build up?

[derrick1p1]

The temps tomorrow will be above 55 tomorrow, close to 60.  I haven't fully opened up the hives yet this year to see how they are doing.  But most seem to be pretty strong in numbers, with lots of activity on warmer days. 

I want to open the brood chamber, possibly pyrimad method, to prevent swarms (all 6 hives swarmed last year, as I wasn't diligent enough and started too late).

Temps here in the highs are about 47-55 degrees, lows at night in the high 30's.  Is it too early to worry about swarm prevention and increased brood production.  Too early to open up the brood chamber??

Thanks in advance for any advice, I'd really like to get more than 3 gallons of honey from 6 hives this year if possible :)

Derrick

[jdpro5010]

I like to wait until the temps are at least in 60's to start manipulating the brood area of a hive.  Good luck with the honey production!

[ArmucheeBee]

I'm 1.5 hours north of you and most of us around here have already opened the hives and checked their status.  They are pulling in a lot of maple pollen right now.   The last two weeks were close to 70 degrees here so you were probably over that.  Are you feeding and checking for pests ?  Really cool that you have bees in East Point, that's a pretty "metro" area from the parts I know of.