- I had practically no bees in the super that was directly above the two deep hive bodies (so I took off the super for now)
- In the top deep hive body, I found some activity and from here, I took out two frames that appeared to 1) not have the queen 2) had brood 3) had honey. I put those two frames, plus another three empty frames into the nuc box and moved that box about 5 miles away where it will stay for the next 2-3 weeks.
- In the bottom deep hive body, I found frames that were loaded with honey so I had to extract 3 frames of honey. This was not at all in my day's plan but I had to deal with it. I think I have at least 1 1/2 quarts of honey from that little harvest!! I interspersed empty frames amongst the full frames in that deep hive.
- I thought there would be more bees but a lot died off over the winter. I should be glad I have enough bees to start me off this year....I hope.
_ I was gratified to see that there was larvae so even though I didn't find the queen, I knew she was there within a couple of days.
Yesterday, I sat and watched the bees come into the hive after being out foraging for pollen and their little pollen sacks were coming back very full of yellow pollen...probably the dandelion flowers. But there are a lot of other wild flowers blooming too so I'm sure they are grabbing as much as they can hold.
I will be watching this hive closely to hopefully see a lot more bees in the coming weeks.
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| Year 2 spring hive with one super removed and top hive feeder added |
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