Hive strength east central mississippi

[tireman]

I was curious and opened one of my hives after work this evening. Have a box and a half of medium frames packed with honey but only like two and a half frames of bees in the brood box. We have had a cold and wet winter for our location. I did see some uncapped larvae but in no pattern to speak of it was just scattered. No queen cells or drone brood. Am I rushing them or is my queen failing? I bought this hive established and the owners before me let them go. I had to do a cutout basically due to rotted and termite damage to the frames so I have no idea as to queen age. thanks for the replies.

[10framer]

if i understood what you described correctly i'd say you have a problem. 

[tireman]

On average, how many bees will a colony have
coming out of winter? Frame wise? I'm using 10 frame deeps for brood boxes. Thanks

[BeeMaster2]

Tireman,
Not sure about your local conditions, but my bees started building up around December 22. They went from a softball size bunch of bees to ready to swarm this week. I took them apart on Sunday and put the queen and a bunch of them in a nuc box and it looks tight. The observation hive got all of the brood and the rest of the bees. The hive still looks packed and there is a ball of bees the size of a baseball, out side of the hive entrance.
Sounds like it is time for a new queen.
Before you do that find someone local to verify.
Jim

[tireman]

Thanks Jim. As far as conditions, we have been extremely wet and temps around 50 with some warmer and some much colder. This week bas been our first warm dry weather. Weather permitting, I am inspecting my other hives for drones and strength of the hives this weekend.