I got the opportunity to check on the bees today. It has been warm enough, I am feeding pretty steadily to ensure my colonies don’t starve. I opened the hives and filled my frame feeders with a gallon each of 1:1 sugar syrup. It’s only February and my bees are rolling.
I didn’t want to go through each hive entirely, but wanted to check and make sure my queens were ok. I decided that signs of a laying queen would work for today. The weather was a bit cloudy and a little windy, so I didn’t want to spend too long fussing with them.
I was pleased to have found capped brood, pollen, honey, and larvae in each box. My queens are apparently doing well after a mild winter and are ready for the nectar to start flowing.
I’m looking forward to making some splits this year, so it will be nice to have an early start.
I also took the opportunity of decent weather to fix up my compost pile. It has been in a box that was hard to get to to turn and such. I unassembled the box and tilled over the pile, adding some fresh material to restart it cooking.
