[JimD]

It is Spring North of Houston and it is time to do a top to bottom. Two hives two 10 frame deeps each.

Last Fall with the rob I pulled a lot of deep frames full of honey plus I left a lot. We have not had a real winter and except for maybe 10- 15 days at most the bees did not fly. Most northers like today blow thru at 38-48 and by the noon it is over 50 and the bees are hard at work. My neighbors love their flowers but you just do not know what the honey will be like.

When I looked in January the top deeps were just about 60% full of honey again other than the new frames that I had dropped in the fall inc what I left for food and little new foundation.

I did screw up and leave two supers on but the bees really did not do much other than fill in the deeps out of 40 super frames some were not fully capped.

I may not have anything in the box but I am guessing but I am guessing that I have a lot of full deeps and the question are they capped or not.

I need to checker board so pull most of the deeps leave say 4 per hive and extract if capped or put on top and leave the supers the way they are or ext too if most is capped

Just trying to get a feel on what to do.

Last year these bees went PMS bad and were really mean and aggressive. Muts are good producers but like the old bees of 30 years ago not mean not crazy mean but it is African territory. I will requeen but have not had a hard mite count all year just some BHB to mess with.

This time last year they were so mean they would follow you 60 yards to the house pissed. I see one hive being like that this year. I hate to double drape and tape to work.

If I rob then would you drop old last year pulled frames in the boxes or new foundation

What would you do if you had this question about your bees?

thanks, Jim

 

[JimD]

Different look. Lots of the honey was gone but one hive had 7 frames of capped brood and the other had 8+. did not really count the larva. Both had drones and one had more than the other. All 4 deeps were full of bees.

I am guessing with the honey and pollen that is left they do not need to be fed. Just looked, moved some frames and added another super.

 

[dgservices]

I live just north of you SE of Dallas. The bees are starting their buildup here too. Resources have been dropping fast but seem to be tapering off this week. You probably have enough honey without feeding. But if they are truly Hot bees that is a problem
I have 2 of 15 hives that are so hot you can hardly work them. Africanized genetics no question. They are in the area. They have 7 to 8 frames of brood on each one but these are all going to be mean bees.
10 days ago we fought through them and pinched both queens. Yesterday, we went through them again and cut out all queens cells (I hope). This made them hopelessly Queenless. I did a newspapers combine on 1 with double nuc I had overwintered and put a frame of brood with young larva and eggs from a gentle hive in the other. We saw quite a bit of drone larva and a few drones crawling around so I hope she can mate. We cut all the drone brood from the Hot hives so it would not be in the drone pool. We'll see.
If you don't have resources to give them now. You will have to wait till queens are available to buy.
They could be mean from other things like high mite loads but if they are africanized replacing the queens should be top priority rather than checkerboarding and such.
Just letting you know what I'm going through on a couple of mine
Good luck on the season!