Package bees: The package bee populations are finally on the upswing. There has been new bees emerging and this will continue now everyday. With the added population, there will be more bodies for expanding the brood nest. Colonies with new foundation will be seeing a slight uptick in comb production.
When the bees are working on eight of the ten frames it will be time to add a second box. When adding the second box, take a frame of honey and pollen that the bees are working on and move it up to the top box, do not move brood. Spread out the frames in the lower box evenly and run nine frames in the lower box. Move the feeder pail up on top of the second box. Continue to feed syrup. The bees will not draw out foundation without feeding them. If you do not feed, the hives population will not grow. Keep pollen patties on your hives.
If package bees are on drawn comb, if you say to yourself, "boy there is a lot of bees in here", time to add your second box.
Overwintered colonies:
overwintered colonies are building fast. Divides have been happening and beekeepers will continue to do divides over the next two weeks, if their hives are ready. Remember, to do a divide, you need eight frames of brood and bees. Sometimes, a colony comes out of winter with a low bee population. These weak colonies cannot be divided and may never be able to divide, but still should continue to build up. Right now an overwintered colony should have at least six frames of brood. If your colony is weak and you have another strong colony, there are two things you can do to help the weak colony.
A beekeeper can add a frame of capped brood into the brood area of the weak colony. This will give the colony a boost in bees, to increase their numbers. As a hive gets more bees, the bees can cover more brood and the hive can expand their brood area. Maybe add another frame of capped brood in about 7-10 days.
Another strategy a beekeeper can do if they have a strong overwintered colony and a weak colony. During the heat of the day, switch the two colonies. Break down the hives. Move the strong colony to the weak colonies location and move the weak colony to where the strong colony is. This will have an immediate impact. The field bees fly out to forage and come back to where they think they live. The weak colony gets a large increase in field bees. The strong colony gets weaker with much less field bees.
This strategy also works for swarm control. If you see swarm cells in a colony. Go through the colony and remove all the swarm cells. Then switch the colony with the swarm cells with a weaker colony. Now the colony that wants to swarm has lost all their field bees and usually will give up their swarming desire. The weaker colony will get much stronger and may have to be monitored for swarm cells.
Honey supers should be on all strong overwintered colonies right now.
With the rainy weather we are having, pollen patties should be on all colonies right now. The rainy weather may limit a hives ability to forage. A colony can deplete their stored pollen after a few days. Brood can perish if there is no pollen in the hive. Pollen patties are cheap and is insurance to keep the colony moving forward.
The fruit bloom is on right now and will continue for about another ten days or so, depending on your locale. After the fruit bloom is over, there will be a period of two to three weeks when there may be a dearth of pollen. So keep a half a pollen patty on your hive until around mid June.