Reversing Brood Boxes?

[guyross]

With the mild winter here my bees are bringing in lots of pollen. One Sunkist hive with their entrance reduced to a half inch they were at least thirty bees waiting to get in. Is this a sign of early build up? Should I go ahead an reverse the boxes?

[sonnypemberton]

same question here... Still have Feb ahead of us but supposed to be very mild march april

[Michael Palmer]

When does your first spring flow start? When do your bees usually start swarm preparations...I mean when do you normally see swarm cells being started? And is it that flow that gets swarming started?

[squarepeg]

michael, i live pretty close to sonny and guy. looking at last year's notes, swarming started in earnest in late march, peaked in mid april, and was pretty much played out by early may.

it was mainly the locust and tulip popular flow, along with lots of other stuff too.

however, we were a couple of weeks early on everything last spring.

[Michael Palmer]

But locust and poplar can't be the first good flow. What about early spring plants like hen bit? If swarming started in earnest in late March, what flow is happening during the first half of March?

I would super for the earliest flows, and reverse just as the earliest cells appear. That way, you are allowing both upward movement of the cluster and overhead nectar storage...when they need it.

[squarepeg]

what i do may not apply to reversing double deeps. i have one deep with a medium above and below that are checkerboarded on the early flows.

the ornamental, (lots of bradford pears around here), and regular bearing fruit trees (apples, peaches, pears, plums), are early along with red maple, dogwood, and redbud. these are accompanied by lots and lots of wildflowers of many varieties. my bees having been mixing these nectars with last fall's stores and using that for their spring build up. toward the end of the early flows, and at the beginning of locust and popular is when they usually swarm.