Can you believe how warm this March has been. So, when it reached 81 degrees here in Chicago, I took the time to do a full inspection of all my hives. Right now, I only have 7 hives in my back yard which really doesn't bother most of the neighbors, but those 7 hives can take anywhere from 20 to 40 min. depending on how detail you want to go. Since, this will be the first inspection of the year I will need to go deep into the hive, and make sure the queen is alive and well, check the brood pattern, check to see how much pollen they are bringing in, and lastly do a reversal on the hive body.
Making sure the queen is alive, checking brood, and pollen are all done at the same time. Even with the weather being so nice, I was amazed to see that my bees are doing so well for this time of year. Upon opening up the hive I noticed that their was a lot of pollen and brood, plus some nectar that was being cured into honey. I found all the queens in their respective hive, they all seemed like they where doing well and laying eggs.
As you can see from the above picture the bees have a nice tight brood pattern in the center of the the frame. When you move out from the capped brood you will noticed what looks to be open cells, but I can tell you they where full of nectar. If you move out from there you'll notice the capped honey that was probably left over from last fall.
This first spring inspection went really well as I closed up the hive, I thanked God that it was such a mild winter here in Chicago. Since it was so mild, I didn't end up losing all my hives like the previous winter. Unfortunately I did lose two hives and have one that is weak, but should make it well into summer.
This first spring inspection went really well as I closed up the hive, I thanked God that it was such a mild winter here in Chicago. Since it was so mild, I didn't end up losing all my hives like the previous winter. Unfortunately I did lose two hives and have one that is weak, but should make it well into summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment