First inspection

[naturaledge]

I was able inspect my one remaining hive today after a couple warm days mid 60s and the bees are very active and bringing in lots of pollen, the hive is three 8 frame mediums ,.I started with a 8 frame medium nuc last spring .All seems good with the hive I found the Queen in the top box with lots of bees around her and I saw about a half a frame of eggs just laid by the looks but no brood . Is this late to just start laying eggs ?There is honey close to the eggs and some pollen. The weather has been cold here in Maine the bees have only been able to fly 4 days so far this spring . How should I position the frames or should I leave them as they are. Thanks for any help  Brian

[ccar2000]

Congratulations on your success in making it through winter! I recommend to just let them be. They know better what they need to do.

[mathew]

Sounds good. Yes it is a little late but from the weather u are describing in Maine, I can imagine that there are few flowers in bloom and the bees can't fly to it. The queen bee needs these natural stimulation to really start her laying work. I have fed my hive with pollen patty and fed 1:1 sugar syrup in hopes to stimulate her laying but it does not seem to work. The artificial feeding only seems to be a safeguard from a dearth of pollen and nectar source due to bad weather or lack of succession blooms in ur area and allows the colony to continue its brood production without starving. TAke note of the day that you saw eggs and then open it up again 8 days later to check if the bees have capped them.

This is not the time to shift any frames around. Its very critical as the routine the bees are used to generate heat, feed the brood, retrieve honey from other frames should not be broken. It minimizes ur loss of bees during an unexpected cold spring snap and since ur queen has just started laying, the bees that you currently have now are very old and the new brood needs to be taking over. Once u have that brood cycle repeated over the next 3-5 weeks, ur bees should be fine.

[naturaledge]

Thanks for the help I will leave them bee and see how they progress ,we are going to have a few good flying days this week (they say) so that should help . Brian