It was 87 degrees on Saturday so any strong hive was more than likely hanging out on the front porch.
It was cooler on Sunday morning when I went to address my hot hives, all of the bees had moved back into the single deeps. There were no bees outside other than the foragers coming and going at the entrance.
When I went through the colonies there were many queen cups and one or two full blown uncapped swarm cells. I removed all the drone brood on the bottom of the frames. Then I checked to make sure that any queen cup or swarm cell was squashed. A second deep was added and the frame feeder was filled up with ProSweet. The new deep was 10 frames of Max Draw foundation. I moved my frame feeder to the top box for easier filling and a new half a pollen patty was given to each colony. Even my three overwintered colony got a half a pollen patty.
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| What a difference a day makes. The day before it was 87 degrees and the bees were clustered outside the hive. The crowded conditions made them move outside. The next morning it is cool and all the bees had moved back inside. |
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| I checked the hive for swarm cells. There was one active swarm cell with egg and royal jelly. I removed all of this drone comb and the queen cups. |
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| I added a second box. I am using a cap and ladder feeder and my syrup of choice is ProSweet syrup. The entrance reducer was increased to the large opening and a frame that was being worked on was taken from the lower box and put into the second box. I have some splits to do later in the week. I will be taking frames of brood and adding it to all of these four colonies. This will bolster their numbers and get the hives ready for the nectar flow later in June. |