Spring Inspection

March 21—I lit the smoker and looked in most of the hives. This is, I think, the 8th year since I quit using all forms of medication in my hives. In the fall there were 12 live hives. In March, 10 are still alive.

If I were medicating hives with Apistan, I should have put the strips in at the beginning of the warm spell, a week or so ago, so I could take them out in April.

Some highlights:

Hive #1: light in weight. The bees were bringing in white colored pollen.

Hive #2 was dead so I moved their super containing some honey to #1.

Hive #3 dead, with an almost full honey super which I gave to hive #8

Hive#4 is a lively double nuc but will need feeding.

Hive#5 dead(2 hives were already dead in the fall so they aren't counted in the winter mortality)

Hive #6 heavy with honey and bees

#7 is a log with a long story and it died.

#8 low but they are finding nectar somewhere and storing it.

#9 heavy with honey and lots of bees

#10 and 11 were harvesting yellow pollen (alder is making pollen and apparently something else is: willow maybe?)

#12 and 13 look good but need feeding

#14 another hollow log looks good but I can't see how much honey they have.