Nuc #5 (Mab)
Nuc #6 (Gumption)
On Feb 28th i took a quick look at the two nucs. Nuc #5, or Mab, is packed with bees and has three of her five frames loaded with brood. The queen looked big & healthy as always. This colony was my first captured swarm from last year. Her population plummeted last fall but now she'll be ready to swarm in no time.
Nuc #6, Gumption, Has two of five frames in brood. She doesn't have the number of bees Mab does but she's drawing comb already. She is a late September swarm. I never took her seriously though she continuously laid eggs. So she's off to a great start now that she survived Winter. So i finally marked the Queen; with white since she is from last year.
Since Mab is full of bees & Gumption is drawing comb they both received an additional brood box (5 frame Nuc) today.
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Nuc #6 (Gumption)
On Feb 28th i took a quick look at the two nucs. Nuc #5, or Mab, is packed with bees and has three of her five frames loaded with brood. The queen looked big & healthy as always. This colony was my first captured swarm from last year. Her population plummeted last fall but now she'll be ready to swarm in no time.
Nuc #6, Gumption, Has two of five frames in brood. She doesn't have the number of bees Mab does but she's drawing comb already. She is a late September swarm. I never took her seriously though she continuously laid eggs. So she's off to a great start now that she survived Winter. So i finally marked the Queen; with white since she is from last year.
Since Mab is full of bees & Gumption is drawing comb they both received an additional brood box (5 frame Nuc) today.
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| Ready to go with old frames & new wax foundation |
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| Mab's (nuc #5) new yellow Medium Brood box |
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| and Gumption's (nuc #6) new yellow Brood box too |
I intend to inspect a few hives this weekend. Might need to reverse some boxes to hold off swarming. This Winter has been VERY mild and the bees are way ahead of schedule.
2 comments:
Very cool to see two captured swarms overwinter!
Here in Mid-Missouri we've had such an unusually warm winter, we're reversing hive bodies and giving syrup to the hives already.
Seems like we're 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule here also...maybe we'll have a longer than usual honey flow?
Wait...did I just jinx us?
Oh, I hope you didn't!
The Winter here has been VERY mild too. Moving into Spring has led to some worse weather than Winter offered. An inch of snow on Monday!!!
Good luck with your bees this year.
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