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...