Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I took advantage of the last 2 days warm weather to go into most of my hives to see what was up. None were overwhelmingly strong, but several had really good populations and the weaker ones still looked healthy. Brood rearing is going on, but at a much lower/slower pace than last year. All had room to move up so I didn't do any reversal of brood boxes.

I didn't see any new burr comb in the hives, and only a couple of the strongest ones had a very few capped drone cells and very small amounts of drone larvae in brood frames with drone cells. Unless things change dramatically, I don't see having swarm issues in my hives for around a month.

I would like to know what everyone else who did some exams found, especially regarding drone production.

Inspected 11/15 hives in my back yard, yesterday.. Only one was really strong. It had 4 frames that were 70 - 75% capped brood on both sides. I did notice in that hive some Drone brood. But, that was the only one. Still have 4 more to go and another 7 in the out yard.

The one strong hive I have remaining has large population and burr comb, I expect it to swarm in the next few days. Didn't go into the frames to check for brood.

I went through some of my stronger hives yesterday. There were small amounts of burr comb with drone larvae, and a small amount of capped drone brood in some of the comb. I did not see any drone pupae in the burr comb I broke apart and no drones walking around on comb. The strongest hive had queen cups along the bottoms of some brood frames, but no queen cells.

I saw 4 dead drones and 1 fully formed drone crawling on my driveway pad this afternoon. These are the first drones I have seen at my hives this season.

Saw my first drone today - kind of half-dead laying on the entrance to my strongest hive.

I saw my first drone flying this afternoon at my house hives. There are many healthy looking drones walking around on frames in the stronger hives, and a few dead ones and crawlers on my driveway pad. If things get and stay reasonably warm, it looks like swarm season might not be far off.

Saw first drone near entrance today. This is the hive I was wishing would swarm about 10 days ago.

Any update on drone activity or reports of swarming yet? I still haven't seen any drones flying yet - just a handful of dead ones...

I have more drones flying and a lot walking around on frames. I have not heard of any swarm calls in the area yet.

I've seen a lot of Drones in my stronger hives too. That is why I will be equalizing my yards, again, tomorrow. I'd like to minimize my swarms this year, as I'd like to pull 400 - 500lbs of honey. Time will tell all though.