opened up my only Michigan hive today!

[harvey]

Hive looked good as far as I can tell for a new beekeeper in training.  First winter.  This hive will be a year old in may as that is when I caught the swarm.  Hive seemed to have quite a bit of honey in it still five full frames.  In Early February I had put five pounds of sugar on top of the second deep.  The sugar is rock hard now and about 3 pounds of it is still there.  Bees crawling all over it.  Bees flying in and out a lot today 55 degrees.  Seemed to be an awful lot of bees in the hive.  I didn't pull any frames yet. 
   Wondering.  As this will be the second year for this hive will it want to swarm?  I am trying to increase my hives from one to five.  I have two packages coming and would like to try and catch two swarms. 
   Is there any thing at this time, Early March in Michigan that I should do.  Kinda cool to see them doing so well. 

[luvin honey]

Congrats to you, fellow northern beek!

[Scadsobees]

Oh yeah, they'll be trying to swarm.  And if you let them, they try to swarm and swarm!

Depending on what your goals are, you can either try to keep them from swarming if you want honey, or split them for another hive, rather than let them swarm.  Either way, keep an eye on them and if you see swarm cells, then go ahead and split (multiple splits if you want, since you have the queen cells, and you may have extra brood by then in your package hives)

The fun is just starting!!! :)

Rick

[harvey]

Scadsobee's?      Do you think maybe I would be better to split this hive instead of trying to catch more swarms from the woods?  Or where ever they came from last year.  This hive seems to have done pretty well.  Maybe they have genetics that I want to keep?  I do want honey but I don't need a lot.  I took half a super last year and was satisfied.  I have thought about doing splits but not really  for swarm prevention just cause I don't have any experience.  Now splits will stop the brood cycle for a while.  Is that a good thing in regards to mites?  I have not treated this hive with anything and really don't want to. 

[Scadsobees]

I don't think that splits will do a whole lot about mites.

But you should definately try to catch swarms in the woods.

As to this current hive...I'd keep plenty of space on them to try to keep them from swarming.  But watch them closely, I struggle with swarming, and find that that is a great time for splits.  I'd rather do a quick split than to lose a half the hive to a swarm.  Watch and wait...if you see swarm cells popping up, then you'll need to split, putting the old queen in the split.
And I find that even with one split or taking a few frames of brood out, I'll still 80 - 100 lbs honey from a healthy hive.

And if you are running out of equipment, you can put a swarm into a single deep, and then when they fill up the box then combine them with another swarm in a single deep, and viola, you have a very strong full size honey-producing hive!

Rick

[harvey]

Thanks Rick,    I am scheming now to come up with my plan for this spring.  I think five hives would be all I would want but have found a friend of mine that is interested in starting also.  If I catch more than two swarms this year I will give any others to him! :evil:

[Klepto Kangaroo]

Good news!

I'll be checking mine this Friday or so
i wasn't sure how much food they hid during the winter so early January i gave each hive some candy boards

say...who are you getting your packages from?

[harvey]

Not sure on the packages,  a friend of mine and his brother order every year and they said they would order a couple extra.  I don't know who they order from?  Hopefully the packages will be as good as the swarm I caught last year.   These bees from the swarm just seem to keep getting bigger and bigger.  They filled one super of honey last year and I only put them in the hive on May 30th.  They filled two deeps with brood and drew out and filled a super too!