Beekeeping is always full of surprises! We had a few warm sunny days and then back into the deep freeze. However, as of this writing no hives or nucs succumbed to this hopefully last bout with winter.
On those few days where we were getting into the high 50’s I was doing a cursory inspection of the hives and nucs by simply raising the inner cover and quickly peeking in to assess hive strength. As normal there was a big variation in strength; from about 6 frames of bees to the entire box boiling over.
To strengthen some of the winter nucs I was transferring full frames of bees and brood from the strongest hives to the weakest nucs. While doing this I was already seeing capped drone cells and a few active drones. Based on the few drones I was seeing swarming will probably not occur before mid-May. But remember beekeeping is full of surprises.
One surprise was a hive where 50% of the bees are drones. Very unusual. I think the queen’s supply of sperm had run out and she was only laying drone eggs. If we get a warmer day I will try to assess the situation further. Since I don’t have a replacement queen this hive will probably just dwindle away.
Surprise number two. I have been supplementing the food supply of my winter nucs by giving them 1:1 syrup via a quart mason jar. A racoon has found this bounty and has removing the jars and drinking the syrup three nights running. I have had to temporarily stop the feeding while I try to live trap the racoon. So far, the racoon is winning. Luckily, he is not damaging the nucs and the bees have not minded the 3 inch hole in their roof.
What’s ahead?
When we get into the 60’s I will be scraping the bottom boards. Then I will do some more bee and brood transfers between strong and weak hives. This is called leveling. It suppresses the swarming urge of the strong hives and strengthens the weaker hives.
I hope to start queen grafting if we can get a few 60 degree days in a row. By the time this several week process is complete there should be mature drones available for mating. Then I just need to pray for warm sunny days for mating flights. Mated queens may be available mid-May if all goes well.
I always get the urge to put on honey supers near the end of April. This year I will fight that urge and not add the supers until I see the bees making fresh white wax on the outer frames of the brood boxes. This means they are busy filling the comb with honey. Adding the honey supers too early lets the bees follow their normal instinct, which is to place the honey directly above the brood nest. Forcing them to put the honey into the brood box outside frames ensures a good honey supply for next winter. The only danger is that if there is an early and strong honey flow they may start filling the brood nest area itself, which can induce swarming. Knowing when to add the honey supers is part of the “art” of beekeeping.
Happy beekeeping.
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