How's spring going?

[cao]

5 over 5 nucs are one hive with 2 nuc boxes stacked on top of each other.    I have overwintered 2 high or 3 high nucs successfully in the past.

[cao]

Well after a little more thorough going through, my losses are more substantial that first thought.  I am down to 51 or so.  at least 3/4 of the losses was due to starvation(beekeeper screw up).  I new I needed to put sugar on several hives.

[gww]

Cao
I have fewer hives but some starvation here also.  Two with honey in hive but not in the top box with the bees during our one extended cold spell.  My best answer to more feeding has been to open the dead outs with honey in them and start robbing.  Hope it is enough. Maples are in bloom now and most days temps are high enough to forage.  I had about 50 percent loss and knew some went into winter light.  Summer 4 and winter 5 has been pretty hard on my bees under my hard bond management compared to exceptional years before those.  Knock on wood though. I am staying pretty static at ten hives by winter and getting around ten gal of honey each year and that works well for me and what I want out of bees compared to what I put in them.  I usually catch a swarm or two and  also get most that come from my hives that I somehow miss catching in time.  I have not really made any splits since year three.  Might this year as I have never started spring with as low of hives as I am starting with this year but time will tell. 
Cheers
gww

[cao]

If the weather holds and we don't get the dreaded week long cold spell in march, the rest of my hives should do fine and be ready to start splitting by the end of the month.

[Brian MCquilkin]

I will be doing my first inspections next week temps will be 61 on Tuesday. Been dealing with dead outs. Losses are about 20% I expected more than that . Surprising that the 5 over 5 nucs did better than the double deeps.

Was that two nucs on top of each other and if so with what in between?

FatherMichael  CAO is correct 5 frame nuc with another 5 frames on top basically 5 frame double dep nuc.

[FatherMichael]

Double deep nucs sound like a good plan because of the more vertically oriented cavity.

[.30WCF]

Went in with 4 and came out with 4. This was my first winter. Two hives were 10 frame deep brood with a medium super on top, and two were deep nucs with a medium nuc super on top. Three of them still had a lot of honey in them when I first looked two weeks ago. One of the ten frames is a little weak and cranky, but the queen is laying good.
I flipped the boxes and added a new super to them and some feed. Last week a couple had started to draw some new comb. I?ll look again in a few days and maybe do some checker boarding if needed. The two nucs and one ten frame are wall to wall brood, so I don?t suspect it to be long before they draw that comb.


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[Ben Framed]

Double deep nucs sound like a good plan because of the more vertically oriented cavity.

It is an easy conversion to a 10 frame box when the time is right.

[FloridaGardener]

We had a long warm, autumn in 2019 that included Hurricane Sally wiping flat most of the goldenrod. So there was little fall forage and lots of late foragers flying around burning fuel while looking for food.
And robbing.
I lost some hives to robbing even with reduced entrances. In one yard, it was def not my bees, I saw a jetstream of bees from the Northeast.... it was all over, they'd taken out three healthy hives.

ln another yard, it was my own bees that robbed, because suddenly they were "rich."  Well, for that...they had to give it up to make a three-frame split taken away yesterday.   It sort of evens out, but not when I'm sentimental about certain queens.  I still hate it. 
I froze the comb from the rob-outs, and have it on hand for expansion. 

Based on my photos from last year, spring is here 20-30 days behind last year.  That is, the white wax/drones/heavy spring flow of Cliftonia ("tie-tie"), red maple, carolina laurel, redbud.  It's all happening late.  The last 10 days they've been crazy busy bees.

I use all mediums, and most colonies were in 1 single box in Jan. I'm now at double layers all around, getting pretty packed out.

[FatherMichael]

Spring is here!

Trees are budding, an apple tree down the street is bursting with flowers, and Dandelions are taking off.

Very little bee activity, though, because we are about to get slammed with a storm.

Took my Long Lang hive out to the farm as a swarm trap.  Will set out some nuc boxes for swarm traps.

Decided not to split any hives or buy any more bees right now.  Need to recover from this shoulder surgery and get a shop built.

[Brian MCquilkin]

Need to recover from this shoulder surgery and get a shop built.

Just thinking out loud. You could contact a local bee club or beek come over and split for you, lots of people willing to help.

[FatherMichael]

Need to recover from this shoulder surgery and get a shop built.

Just thinking out loud. You could contact a local bee club or beek come over and split for you, lots of people willing to help.

Thanks, Brian.

When I get the shop built I expect it will be also the meeting room for a local bee club that I'd like to start.

Had a great turnout for our Deep Creek Apiaries open house last spring -- the paper wrote us up and sent a reporter.  A few visit my FB page -- but yes, we need to get organized so that we can help each other.

Right now I don't need more bees.  I need more time! Yikes!

[.30WCF]

I went back in and looked at the bees today.
The weakest of the four hives I overwintered has grown a lot on the last four days. There is lots of brood and eggs and they are just starting to draw comb in the super. This hive has one deep brood, a medium of mostly honey and some brood, and a second medium super is being drawn now. Still cranky though.

I looked at the other two and they were both about the same as the first. I started to gather my stuff and skip the last 3 box nuc. I decided what the heck, I?m here anyway. This nuc had almost completely drawn out the third box. Good thing I looked cause I have a couple days to decide if I want to split it or put it in a 10frame and add more frames.  These three do not seem to be as temperamental.

Last year the hive that?s being aggressive was sweet, and it?s the same queen. I?m hoping as the weather gets a little better and they fill out the boxes that they calm down. If not, they?ll get a brood break.


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[Lkbee]

Actually, not so good, I am a hobbyist...