Crazy winter update

NE Alabama here, and the bees have been bringing in pollen since Jan 3. I figured I would have some full boxes today when it got to 65 degrees. I finally went into the hives for their first inspection this year.

All 7 hives are treatment free.

All seem to have wintered well. Very light fall feeding after leaving a super of honey on each in September. We had good weather until late so I fed just a little to backfill the brood chambers.

Best hive had 8 frames of brood and was packed with bees already - had plenty of food and will feed until flow to maintain this. Little room to grow so will add empty super. saw 2 patches of maybe 50 drones capped so figuered these gals were planning on Feb swarm. Sure wish I had access to a queen to do a split.

weakest hive had 3 partial frames of brood. Brood area had been backfilled and left little room for brood.

Saw a couples drones already running around...

cleaned bottom boards, revered boxes etc.

Very happy with everything, but a little worried about Feb weather and already such a buildup... there will be a fine line between keeping these guys fed and overcrowding to the point of swarm, heating issues etc with all the crazy weather.

We will see what it becomes...

I checked a few hives Saturday here in Louisiana and they were packed with bees. Most hives had 6 to 7 frames of brood and bringing in fresh nectar from maple that just started blooming. The willows look like they wont be too far behind. I thought last year was an early spring but it looks like this year will be even earlier. I will be dusting off my swarm traps in the next couple of days. Caught a swarm 3rd week of February last year, looking to beat that this year.

good report sonny! deepsouth has a good idea on the swarm traps. do you have any empty deeps you can set out?