Finally, a Fly Day in the high 50's. Opened up each box of the hives and removed the Apistan strips that had been place there in late November. Lots of bees were buzzing out of Myrina but only a few from Mary. I saw a nice cluster in the top deep of Mary. Then No bees in the middle deep. Then a bigger cluster in the Bottom deep. What does that mean? I mentioned it on the bee forum. Michael Bush said he had seen before were a cluster can split on a warm day. There may be a virgin queen mixed in with the real queen. Won't know 'till later in Spring when i can do an inspection.
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| Mary Top Deep |
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| Mary Middle Deep |
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| Mary Bottom Deep |
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Also i noticed no real condensation to worry about. A smal drip here or a little dollop there. Just enough to give the bees a water source inside the hive when it's to cold to fly.
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| Bees Drinking Condensation Water |
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I didn't see any pests but i didn't remove any frames either. The uninsulated VB on Mary was replaced with a Insulated one and the nine hole uninsulated VB on Myrina was replaced with a three hole version. Both VB's only have a single hole remaining open with tape over the other holes. I had one pollen patty laying around so i cut it in half and put it in each hive. It went directly on top of the frames. Off-center from the middle towards the back. Otherwise the hole in the Inner cover would have been blocked.
Myrina looked good with bees clustered in both boxes together. All the deeps on Mary & Myrina are still heavy with honey and whatever pollen they collected last Fall.
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| Myrina Top Deep |
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| Myrina Bottom Deep |
After the quick opening and closing Mary's bees came out in force.
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2 comments:
Sounds good for them both in January. :-)
Yeah it looks good right now. In another month and a half we'll be into the first bloom of spring. I do plan to remove the middle box in Mary on the next warm day.
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