It is finally into the upper 40's here in Western Michigan. My girls are finally out flying around and even saw some pollen on some of them. I am estatic that all 5 of my hives have activity in them hopefully meaning they survived the winter. I started feeding them yesterday and they have not taken much up yet.
What concerned me, was that on one of the hives that I left a 3/4 full shallow super on, all the bees where coming out of the top cover thru the ventilation groove I put on the inner cover. When I lifted the covers, the shallow was full of bees. There were not any bees using the lower main entrance. My question is, how do I force the bees down into the deep brood boxes? It's been too cold to do an inspection yet. So I don't know where the queen is laying eggs, if any yet. It's suppose to get up into the middle 50's next week so I am going to do my inspections them.
Am I worrying about nothing?
It's been a long, cold, record snowfall, winter here in West Michigan! But things are looking warmer finally.
Henry