I have a hive that was a double ten frame deep going into winter. They were strong last summer and I left them all the honey they gathered for winter. I Checked them last week and saw very little brood and no queen. I checked today and still very little brood but I found the queen. She is laying but skipping around and not laying a good pattern. What are the main things that stimulate the spring build up? Our temps have been anywhere from 45 to 80 for the last three weeks or so, and we've have heavy rain. The hive has plenty of honey and I saw some fresh pollen in the frames. Thanks for any advice.
The bees needs and the cycle they are on. Is it time to ramp up for reproduction or time to preserve? Of course some keys they key on are length of days, temps, and available sources. In my experience the bees sometimes won't access capped honey they seem to want to preserve it. Scratch the cappings off some honey to see if they will take it if you have plenty. Off course pattern issues could be a sign of a failing queen. But could also be hygienic bees. You have to look at all indicators.
There are plenty of folks on here from the Ala- Ms areas. They will chime in, I imagine you should be ramping up and rapidly approaching swarm time. If that is the case, seems you should be heavy with brood...
You are on the same parallel as bud and close to bud. By the beemaster annual gathering he is in full swarm season, And the gathering is only about three weeks away. Take a trip over to Macon Ms and meet the gang and experience a lot ........ :smile: