[burns375]

First spring inspection. Went thru half the hives... Looking good. There is still alot of honey in my single deeps with shallows. No top vent seemed to helped them retain more heat, cutting down on honey consumption. Im actually concerned they have a bit too much honey left over, all the center cluster cells have either have brood, pollen or stores. No more room to lay. We'll see what happens, maples have a great bloom right now, very colorful. Daffodills, crocus, creeping charlie, elm are in bloom too.

Do the honey capings on this frame look too light to be from last year?

First drone brood at the bottom of the frame, no flyers yet.

1000th post!!!

 

[philip.devos]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

Phil

 

[merince]

Congrats on the post and great looking hive, too!

 

[Snookie]

Groovy...thanks for the pics:}

 

[A'sPOPPY]

Nice pics, did you feed in the fall? the open stores look very clear.
They should convert honey to brood this time of year.

 

[tsmullins]

Nice. Looks like you have some drone cells already.

Shane

 

[David LaFerney]

Those white cappings look like what they do with maple when they get enough of it. Looks great.

 

[Dustin Mori]

You always have great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

 

[burns375]

Thanks David, I've never payed much attention to maple, usually do my first inspections in April. But this year the maple bloom has been fantastic.... Theres nectar or honey in comb I didn't expect, lots of open partially filled frames, usually the cluster does not leave so many cells open as they will crystallize. And the hives are so nice as if they are on a flow. I spoke with a few club members and one old timer and they all said they've never seen much if any nectar come in during maple, just lots of pollen. Perhaps they just never payed much attention like I did. I should have done a shake test. Thanks for confirming. I'll weigh them today.

E. Burns

 

[burns375]

Nice pics, did you feed in the fall? the open stores look very clear.
They should convert honey to brood this time of year.

Im pretty sure its maple nectar. But everyone local i've talked too says no way. I have not fed syrup this spring except .25-.5lb/ hive of protein patty in february. I pulled those off, beetles got into them bad and there was enough natural pollen coming in.

I fed about 100lbs of dry sugar mixed 2:1 across those 6 hives in october. Works out to be about about 20lbs of stored weight each.

Heres a link to weight measurements from Oct-March.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...REI1bUk0anpfMUE&single=true&gid=3&output=htmlhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AqfkobJ_P4YbdE10OGJoaDA1eHlaREI1bUk0anpfMUE&single=true&gid=3&output=html

 

[A'sPOPPY]

Maple nectar is real, I had 2 supers full in most colonies by April 1st last year then 24 of them swarmed by April 20th. Paying closer attention this year. Here is a link, look at what is says about maple. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_nectar_sources_for_honey_bees

 

[burns375]

Thanks poppy, it must usually be too cold here, but wow this year the bloom is incredible, well timed temps. They are bringing in quite a bit nectar, lots of moisture in the hive. Weather is turning cold next week, maybe I'll throw on some drawn supers I have, no queen cells yet, knock on wood.

The single deep colonies and nucs are practically bound, they have a few partially drawn frames on the outside that still need to be drawn out fully The double stacks have room still Shouldn't have feed so much, o well, usually maple isn't much here.