Didn?t Expect To Find This

.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 05:02:42 PM

02.25.2022
66*F
I put five hives to winter. Three were 10 frame boxes and two were nucs. I tipped them up from time to time over the winter, and they would be a little lighter each time. By December I was fully expecting the nuc on the end to be a dead hive come spring, and a little curious what the outcome of the middle 10 frame would be. I never supplemented them, just monitored them occasionally. I would always see bees on warm days even in the last nuc that truly felt like it was just an empty box.
Today it was 66*F so I thought I?d go see just how dead the bees were and add a frame or two of bees to the nuc if another hive could afford to spare them.
I opened the little nuc up and found a few frames of bees in both the top and bottom box, the queen and brood.

I closed them up.
Then I got interested to see what was in the biggest hive that was a deep and two medium boxes going into winter.
There was sooooooo much brood, some honey on the sides, drones and empty swarm cups. Knee jerk reaction was to put TWO boxes on top of partially drawn foundation.

At now 5 boxes high I put the lid back on.

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 05:07:20 PM

I continued down the line. Things got more sporty the further I went. The next hive got one medium of plastic foundation. Drones and swarm cups and brood everywhere.

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 05:12:21 PM

Same with the next box. I added a medium of plastic.

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 05:18:12 PM

Then I got to the tripple nuc. It was so full. QC, drone brood. I did a walk away split in February on that one just for fun. I took the two mediums and put them on a bottom board, gave them another medium of drawn comb from the freezer. And added a deep of drawn from the freezer onto the deep nuc. I set the frozen combs out to warm for a few before putting them in the hives.

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 05:21:11 PM

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 05:25:33 PM

All in all, I added six boxes today to five hives, did a split (should have done more splits if there were more drones around) and gave a gallon of thin syrup to the first nuc I expected to have died out over the winter.
We will see what happens. Something will happen, we just have to wait and see what.

I?d say I wasn?t ready for that, but surprisingly I still have a couple frames of drawn comb in the freezer. But I sure wasn?t expecting it.

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The15thMember · February 25, 2022, 05:53:54 PM

Wow! Well that confirms my thoughts of opening up my girls for their first inspection next weekend.

Ben Framed · February 25, 2022, 06:08:56 PM

I bet you were surprised being in your area. Isn't that growing zone 7b?
30 did you find any capped Queen Cells or QCs' that had hatched/(emerged)?

PS I see you went ahead and got a wood splitter :-) :Thumbs up:

.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 06:56:56 PM

Quote from: Ben Framed on February 25, 2022, 06:08:56 PM
I bet you were surprised being in your area. Isn't that growing zone 7b?
30 did you find any capped Queen Cells or QCs' that had hatched/(emerged)?

PS I see you went ahead and got a wood splitter :-) :Thumbs up:

I am in 7b. I kind of wasn?t planning on needing to get in them until the middle of next month. Glad I did. Maybe I didn?t make the right moves, but I was kind of blindsided and had the frames, foundation and drawn comb on hand.
I did bite the bullet on a splitter. I haven?t used it much yet. Seems nice.

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 10:26:45 PM

I found a bunch of empty cups. I didn?t dig through everything. Just a quick peek.

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Ben Framed · February 25, 2022, 10:36:39 PM

30, I noticed in at least one of those Queen Cups, in one of those pictures, looked like it contained larva. That and other pictures conceived the question. I am 'on the border line' of being in zone 7b and 8b. I am officially in 7b. Your post have caught my attention. Thanks.

Thing Is it was only 34 high today and 30 tonight. (I think the zone makers made a mistake) (It seems I am always in a colder frame where I live, than that of zone 7b.
lol

Phillip

.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 10:55:14 PM

I was waiting for a warm day to paint boxes I got some more muted colors to tone them down a touch. I
Just never had time on a nice enough day over the winter to paint them. I may have to do the paint and swap till I get through them.

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 11:08:15 PM

Several of these queens were pretty late splits. One is a weird little black queen. The workers are bigger than she is. She is just slightly longer, but more narrow than a worker. If I remember, I think they were September queens. Maybe late August.

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.30WCF · February 25, 2022, 11:12:05 PM

Quote from: The15thMember on February 25, 2022, 05:53:54 PM
Wow! Well that confirms my thoughts of opening up my girls for their first inspection next weekend.

Hope you get good weather. We are turning cold again this week for a few days then getting close to 70 next weekend. You may be a little cooler up in the hills.

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The15thMember · February 26, 2022, 12:29:37 AM

Quote from: .30WCF on February 25, 2022, 11:12:05 PM
Hope you get good weather. We are turning cold again this week for a few days then getting close to 70 next weekend. You may be a little cooler up in the hills.

Yeah, we seem to be about 5 degrees cooler than you. We've got cold temps over the weekend, especially Sunday, so an inspection tomorrow is a no-go. The long range forecast for next weekend says about 65 with lows in the upper 40s, but that could easily change as the week goes on.

.30WCF · February 26, 2022, 12:31:14 AM

back down in the 20s and 30s at nite.

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cao · February 26, 2022, 01:28:44 AM

Last year when I inspected some of my hives and found queen cups like you, I added boxes for space but it only delayed things about two weeks before those cups had larva in them. Keep an eye on them.

loisl58 · February 26, 2022, 02:48:05 AM

Wow lots of work. What a way to go into next season.

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.30WCF · February 26, 2022, 04:47:21 PM

I may try to go in on Thursday. It?s supposed to be sunny and 70*F. If I need to do some splits I?ll have some time to do that.

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Acebird · February 27, 2022, 09:09:49 AM

Quote from: .30WCF on February 26, 2022, 04:47:21 PM
I may try to go in on Thursday. It?s supposed to be sunny and 70*F. If I need to do some splits I?ll have some time to do that.
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Temperature is not the trigger for bees, sunlight is. Just like vegetation, what ever grows in your area is accustom to temperature swings. Timing is controlled by the number of daylight hours.