Went through hives today;shocked at what I found!

[gardeningfireman]

Went thru both hives today to clean them up and see if there is any brood. Hive #1 had empty med. on top (I had started feeding)BUT there was probably 15-20 pounds of honey in the upper deep! Did find young larvae and capped brood. Hive #2 had one frame of honey that I put in last week in the med. super, otherwise no food. Upper deep was 80% full of honey! Lower deep was almost empty. Looked closer in the med. super and found small amount of young larvae. I may have to re-queen this one, but I'll check again next week. I put the med. in the middle, with the deep full of honey on top. Also found some pollen in this one. The girls were very gentle this morning- no stings! I think I will let them finish the syrup they have left in the jars and stop feeding them. And to think when I checked the mediums two weeks ago I thought they had no food left! They were just too dumb to go down to it!! This year I think I will winter them in just two deeps instead of two deeps and a medium.

[Kathyp]

generally, they move up over the course of the winter.  it's more about instinct than intellect  ;)

[gardeningfireman]

Yes, I figure they started out the winter too high in the boxes, and then couldn't break cluster to get what was there under them. Well, anyway, they made it through okay!

[gardeningfireman]

The whole time I was going through the hives, the girls remained calm and I had no problems. BUT.....
a little while later, about 50 feet away from the hives I picked up a piece of debris in the yard and promptly got hit in the throat by a kamikaze bee! I already have an upper resp. infection with scratchy throat and cough, now it's swollen too!  :( Like I really needed this!