Early March Inspections
Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2024 4:19 pm
I went through my hives at the house this afternoon. They are strong and building but are not in swarm mode yet. I moved queens and brood down and checkerboarded with open drawn comb and capped brood frames above the queen. I moved a lot of the feed frames to my top supers but left honey and pollen frames in the classic position. Not exactly the standard Walt Wright checkerboarding, but close. I opened the brood nest but did not checkerboard the food areas. I don't think there is so much food in my hives that it was necessary to open up the food supers. We'll see.
I took 2 frames of capped brood and nurse bees and used them to boost a very weak but healthy hive that I was surprised to find had made it over winter. I'll look in on this hive tomorrow afternoon to make sure the boost went well.
Tomorrow, I hope to go through my remote hives. These have shims and sugar/pollen substitute bricks on them. I hope they are strong enough that I will have some burr comb clean up to do.
I took 2 frames of capped brood and nurse bees and used them to boost a very weak but healthy hive that I was surprised to find had made it over winter. I'll look in on this hive tomorrow afternoon to make sure the boost went well.
Tomorrow, I hope to go through my remote hives. These have shims and sugar/pollen substitute bricks on them. I hope they are strong enough that I will have some burr comb clean up to do.