Guilfordbeekeepers.org

It's 73 right now. I can't stand it this hot so early, but it's good for the bees.

Two of my hives are exploding with activity, with lots of yellow pollen coming in. The top super of one is completely full of honey, so I put another super on. I agree with Kurt that there may be some early swarms.

The third has about a grapefruit sized cluster, but the queen is alive. The hive is light on honey, so I moved four of the top super frames from the full hive to this one.

I do see some SHBs in every hive, however. Is this cause for concern? I treated using natural traps and no chemicals last fall.

I'm seeing a few SHB in the hives as I inspect. I'm not too worried about the adults now, as long as my bee population is large enough to keep them in check. If there are large areas of unprotected honey/nectar combs where they can lay eggs and have the larvae do damage, I would be concerned. I do plan to be more aggressive with beetle traps and with making sure that hive population reasonably matches comb area since it seems that small hive beetles are becoming more of an issue.

If you have a totally empty super, plus 4 empty frames you replaced the four full ones with, on the same hive, you may have too much space for this time of year. I would check the empty hive super frames weekly or bi-weekly for shb.

Ok, I'll just take that top super off again for now and check back in a week or two.

Rob,
Its interesting that you saw a few SHB. I have gone through 8 of my 10 hives and the nuc, inspecting each box down to the bottom board and did not see one SHB. They were here last summer so nothing special being done here. I was just wondering why they are out there and not here yet. Temperature difference, people watering lawns more there. Just one of those thoughts.
Ski