First of all, I apologize if this is a redundant post but I couldn't find another post with a quick search.
I have 4 hives, all 2 deep. All seem to be strong coming out of winter. They all feel pretty heavy right now. I have multiple questions as to my next actions:
1. I know I need to feed 1:1 now, which I will be putting that on today, but should I also be putting in pollen patties as well?
2. Once I do this, I'm assuming I just manage the hives as I did last season where as they fill up the 2 deeps with brood I put a queen excluder on and start adding honey boxes? And manage mites as I find them with monitoring?
3. As they fill up honey boxes this spring and summer and cap it, can I just put a new honey box on, then put an escape board, then the full honey box on until I'm ready to process that honey or will this be a problem for the hive?
4. I would like to try to do a couple splits this year. Is it best to do these into nuc boxes, or should I do the splits right into a new 10-frame hive?
I feel like these are kind of dumb questions but I see lots of conflicting information out there and this is the first time I have had bees make it through winter.
Thanks in advance.
I have 4 hives, all 2 deep. All seem to be strong coming out of winter. They all feel pretty heavy right now. I have multiple questions as to my next actions:
1. I know I need to feed 1:1 now, which I will be putting that on today, but should I also be putting in pollen patties as well?
2. Once I do this, I'm assuming I just manage the hives as I did last season where as they fill up the 2 deeps with brood I put a queen excluder on and start adding honey boxes? And manage mites as I find them with monitoring?
3. As they fill up honey boxes this spring and summer and cap it, can I just put a new honey box on, then put an escape board, then the full honey box on until I'm ready to process that honey or will this be a problem for the hive?
4. I would like to try to do a couple splits this year. Is it best to do these into nuc boxes, or should I do the splits right into a new 10-frame hive?
I feel like these are kind of dumb questions but I see lots of conflicting information out there and this is the first time I have had bees make it through winter.
Thanks in advance.