February inspection

[amymcg]

We had temps in the 50's yesterday morning so I went down to do a full inspection on my one hive.

I have a two deep configuration. The girls have been in the upper deep for about a month.  That deep is still very heavy with honey stores. I took it off and looked at the empty lower deep.  There are still about 5 frames of honey and varying amounts of pollen in some of the otherwise empty brood frames.  Since there were no bees in the lower deep, I took the time to scrape all the frames and frames rests so the manipulation would be easier later on.  There was a small patch of abandoned brood in there, about the size of a fifty cent piece.  I cleaned off the bottom board, lots of bees and debris.

The upper deep took awhile to inspect, but I basically have 6 full frames of bees and lots of honey.  I didn't see the queen, but she's a good hider and in fact I haven't actually seen her since last July.  I'm pretty sure she's there.  

Now that I've seen exactly how big the cluster is and how large the amount of honey is in the hive, I feel better about them making it through. Granted, we've had a mild winter. Has anyone else done a full inspection yet?

[Kirk-o]

Oh yeah I have but I'm in Los Angeles.Its differnt here.I had bees in Utah in the 70's had for seasons there.I checked mine to weeks ago they are
doing good they have a supper full of honey I added a med box last week.
I have learned down here it is spring when the peach trees bloom that was two weeks ago.I has taken a bit of figureing out how and when to do what here because it can be good weather alot of the time.The gum trees are blooming down were I have my bees .
I lost two hives this year because of mites or something but the wild bees I hived last january are doing well
kirko

[leominsterbeeman]

Amy -

Did you see any new brood in the upper chamber.  Eggs, Larve or capped?   That will ley ou know the real heatlh of the queen.

[amymcg]

Hi Michael,

No I didn't see any brood or eggs yet.  Are yours rearing anything yet?

[beemaster]

Hey Buddy:

Amy, I truly miss our chats - I need to reinstall AIM so we can talk again.

I took advantage of a 68degree day about 2 weeks ago and ripped apart C2 the lighter of the two ( I was limited for time - so I went with the apparent weaker) and all looked fine. They were flying about, food supplies we well distributed, activity in the hive was general and relaxed and I didn't see the queen but I had a fine feeling that she was well covered and doing normal Winter Stuff when "the big bad Beemaster guy" started prying apart the boxes.

I did as little distruction as possible, I hate ruining their insulation, so I pryed the top and pulled a few frames only - I didn't go into the lower box at all and the bee count seemed very realistic for Feb.

Best wishes, give us an update later and as always - enjoy your other vocations, you are one busy person - I am like the Anti-Amy come Winter and go down hill from there - l0l.

[gsferg]

What kind of bees you have Amy, and how are your mites? I don't think there's any brood in my hives to speak of yet.

George-

[qa33010]

Hi all!

    We've had a real mild winter until the last couple days when we finally got a hard freeze.  I checked mine in the early part of January and there was some open brood about the size if a baseball on one side and a golf ball on the other side.  I fed some more and added two patties.  Well we had a 70 degree day Wednesday so I figured I would check again.  They have been eating like crazy and have been bringing in some pollen (bright orange, dark orange, dark yellow, yellow-orange, white and this past week grey) and had three frames of honey January.  They now have four+ frames of honey and syrup and another uncapped.  The one pollen patty is gone and the other is just starting.  Also a softball size of brood on both sides (capped and uncapped).  I'll get to see how they do after this freeze snap.  Though the numbers are small they are a lot more than last fall (from volleyball to basketball size).  Thanks

[Finsky]

I'll get to see how they do after this freeze snap.  

When you give pollen patty, it is important to give it all the time. Bees do well over bad weathers if they get drinking water outside. I suppose that you do not have snow if flowers are blooming.  :P

Colony starts real expansion after first new nurser bees emerge.

[amymcg]

My bees are northern bred Italians.  The mites are there, but are at a pretty normal level.  This hive is going to get regressed this year.