Packages this year have offered some real challenges to the area’s  beekeepers. Basically the queens have been failing at a higher than normal rate. I have been working with one beekeeper that has two new hives from packages. The hives started on foundation. One queen looked normal but did not lay (not mated?) and one queen was dead on arrival. The one hive with the not mated queen was given a new queen from a reliable source mid week which should resolve that hive’s queen problem. At the time, there is not a second queen available.

The non laying queen was caged and moved into the hive with no queen because there was the beginning of laying workers and the hope was that the queen’s pheromones would inhibit the laying worker while a solution was found.

Today a very small  NUC with a  queen and a bit of brood was added to the laying worker hive using the standard newspaper separator process. The hope is that the queen and brood  pheromones and her attendant workers will be strong enough to overcome the laying worker’s pheromones and the hive will accept the new queen.

It is a grand experiment and may fail but that is the fun of beekeeping. I’ll post the results which should be known by next weekend.

Spring arrived at the bee yard last week with 70° days and flowers blooming everywhere. Most hives now have several frames of capped brood and additional frames with lots of larval and eggs. I’ve heard that a frame of brood can produce 3,000 bees so the hive numbers can jump very fast this time of year. I have lots of space for bees, brood, pollen and nectar so bring on the bees! My hives are now four medium supers minimum and some are  five. I added foundation mixed with comb to give the wax production a place to go and will carefully watch for signs of swarm preparation.

Mite drop boards and drone brood checks indicated some mite problems so treatment is ongoing for the hives with mite issues. So far the bees are doing well.

Yesterday and today were perfect for bees and blooms. Checked for brood and brood pattern in all my hives. Some are doing better that others but so far no major issues. There were the beginnings of queen cells being built in several of the stronger hives. The plan is to split off the queen cells and produce 5 frame hives.

I inserted mite drop boards yesterday and checked today for a 24 hour mite drop count. All hives had  mites on the board. I’ll probably treat with formic acid strips so that the hives will be clear of treatment before nectar flow gets strong. I expect nectar flow will start in two weeks and the strips are a one week treatment. All hive are 4 medium supers with plenty of empty comb available and the honey frames alternating with empty comb.

I also added a super of foundation to two of the strongest hives. All the existing frames were covered with bee. This year I plan to give them a lot of space and see if that helps slow down swarming.

Temperature was about 50°F (or a bit more) yesterday so I added top feeders to all hives with about 1 gallon of 2-1 sugar syrup. The bees were flying and bringing in some pollen. Still not much in bloom. Maple trees are close but there is no pollen in the buds. I saw a few ground cover plants with blooms. The day time weather for the upcoming week is forecast to be low to mid 40s. As I did not pull brood frames, I don’t know how large the brood area is. Still feeding candy and protein supplement.

In keeping with the plan to reduce swarming, I added a super of drawn comb to all the hives. Per the checker boarding directions I alternated empty comb frames with capped honey in the top two supers. There is good bee cover on the comb and capped brood that will be emerging in several days. I added candy and protein supplement to all the hives yesterday and the protein was covered with bees today. There was lots of pollen coming in mostly grey colored. I found some nectar being stored. Since I’m not feeding syrup the bees are finding something they like.