Great Day in Michigan - spring inspection looks good!

[hollybees]

Hi Everyone,
I'm just pumped about getting a chance to get into the hives on a awesome spring day!
The girls are doing great...
Brood patterns look good and healthy, plenty of pollen no signs of problems.
They had maybe a half frame of honey left and I left them at least 80lbs..tough winter.

I reversed supers and consolidated frames w/pollen and honey. I had 5 supers overwinter 2 were all honey.
The end result was I have good brood in the bottom (1st) super, good larvae & brood in the 2nd, pollen stores in the 3rd and a 4th w/open drawn comb.
So I removed one super from each of my 2 hive's and there is some spotty pollen stores in the 20 frames I have left over.
What should I do with them? I left them out there hoping they would rob them out...will they?

I think it's to early for wax moth's, there isn't alot of pollen in them and the bee's are bringing in plenty.
Yeah, I just don't know what to do with them??

Thanks in advance.....It was so good to work w/the bee's again.
I had to share w/someone...my wife just gets this blank stare after about 5min's of hearing me talk about bees!

I hope you bees are well!

Paul

[MustbeeNuts]

Hi, you bet couldn't ask for a better weekend for inspections. got up to 72 here today.

[Brian D. Bray]

They might rob out pollen but usually only if there is a dearth of it.  Pollen dearths cause the bees to use quite a few different substitutes like sawdust and cornmeal.  If they have plenty of pollen in the frames they were left with, plus what they are bringing in, the are probably more in need of syrup to raise more brood, which is why you find so little of it yet.  It is either being consumed by the adult bees or fed to the brood.  A sudden cold snap or days of rainy weather, that can happen in spring, could cause the hive to starve with such little stores. 

I would feed until I saw the space between the brood area and the top bar full of honey or nectar then the bees would have enough to live on for about a week this time of year. 

[hollybees]

Hi, you bet couldn't ask for a better weekend for inspections. got up to 72 here today.

Yeah, temps here were the same. I hope were done with the cold now.
Probably not.

Thanks,
Paul

[hollybees]

They might rob out pollen but usually only if there is a dearth of it

Brian,
Your right, I really don't think they will take it, there is so much available to them right now.
Can I just store the frames if there is some pollen in them and use them later?
I wasn't sure if the pollen would get rotton and ruin the frame.

I would feed until I saw the space between the brood area and the top bar full of honey or nectar then the bees would have enough to live on for about a week this time of year. 

I have a 2 gallon pail feeder on the top of each hive w/1:1 syrup, but their taking it slower than I expected.
The weather has just started to warm up so I expect that will change.

I'm grateful for your advice,
Paul

[Scadsobees]

I'd just leave those extra supers where they can get some air and light if possible.  The pollen will only have problems if it is airtight (mold) or if it gets moths or beetles, and it is still a bit early for those to get a foothold (a few moths won't hurt much).  Besides, you'll need to put them back on the hive in a few weeks.  They should be fine till then.

Rick