[capebee]

This is the first winter my hives (I have 2) have survived through the winter.
Today I inspected the hives. In both the upper and lower deeps there are
many frames of honey. There's also quite a bit of pollen. What I didn't see
a lot of is capped brood and larvae. In one hive I saw maybe total 1 half frame of
capped brood and some larvae the other hive less than that. Is this typical coming out
of winter? I would have expected to see a lot more evidence of the queen(s) laying. There
were not a ton of bees in each hive.... maybe 500 in each. hard to count... but that's an estimate.
I did not see the queen in either hive.

Thanks for the insights.

 

[Vance G]

There is no more brood than that because that is all they can keep 93 degrees and it is a slow climb out of such a deep hole. Personally I would find the queen in the best colony and shake out the bees from the other in the grass a few feet away on a warm day. Put the brood frames from both close together and consolidate the colony down to one box. No huge hole in the bottom and a two bee wide entrance will help also. Seal them up except for the small entrance. Put them in as sheltered location as you have. Get bees to reoccupy your empty equipment. It was a long hard winter.