Guilfordbeekeepers.org

It looks like today might be the last good inspection weather for a while, so here are some random observations I made on Friday after going through all of my colonies (frame by frame). I imagine everyone else is seeing the same, but thought it could be beneficial for anyone new:

1. I still did not see a single drone. This is so different from last winter when I had tons of overwintering drones... I did see several hives with drone brood (larvae and just capped). That means it will still be 28 days +/- before those drones are mature enough to be flying and mating.
2. Red maple pollen was coming in thick, and apparently had been for some time as I saw plenty of fresh pollen already in cells. Glancing at the woods in the distance, you can definitely see the pinkish hue to the tips of the trees.
3. It appears true that the bees will eat sugar bricks, fondant, etc. before their own honey stores. I have been wanting mine to burn through old medium frames of sugar syrup-honey so I can use in supers this spring, but they have been slow to do so while I've had "emergency feed" on top.
4. One colony had just started touching up the top bars with white wax, but no one else had built any burr comb in the feeding shims.

They will likely prove me wrong, but it "seems" like my colonies are building up a little slower this winter and are less likely to hit early swarm mode.

Anyone observing anything very different?

I inspected my weaker hive today. It has two mediums. The top box had capped brood on each frame surrounded by capped honey and nectar. I did not see any drone brood or drones. I found the queen and marked her. The bottom box had only splotches of capped honey and empty cells on each frame. So I swapped out the bottom box with the top. I will check soon to see if they need another box. Or maybe they do now? They had eaten all the sugar cakes and pollen patty I put out. I want this hive to get strong so I swapped out the wide shim for a narrow, added another pollen patty, and will begin to feed 1:1 sugar water.

How much help will a pollen patty be now? My bees are bringing in all the red maple pollen they can carry and whole frames are full of it. I'm just curious how much help folks think pollen patty's are around here this time of year. Thoughts?

I was able to do thorough inspections on my 15 farm hives yesterday. I did some minor equalizing and a few reversals. I observed drones walking on frames in probably half those colonies, and capped drone brood in all. Like Jacobs, I did not see any signs yet of swarm preparation.

What I did see was fresh nectar! I assume from the maples or other source. I'm trying to get second deeps drawn this year, so went ahead and added a deep of foundation (with one drawn frame to bait them up) to the strongest colonies so it will be available if they decide to start drawing wax.

Another interesting thing I saw for the first time was a green pollen they were bringing in. Not olive or grey-green like red maple, but really green, like grass colored. This might be from sugar maples (?), but it's the first time I've noticed it in coming in so strong.

The reason I do pollen patties is I was taught that pollen in February will stimulate laying. I am planning (hoping if strong enough) to do splits this spring. I want the hives busting with numbers so that I can split them.

In regards to pollen....
I had some pollen sub out for open feeding just to see what they would do. Noticed recently that they are far more interested in some sugar syrup than the pollen sub. When inspecting, I noticed that they seem to have plenty of pollen so (as you said) they are definitely finding it out there and don't want my fake pollen sub!