I did an inspection last week of all my hives. They all survived the winter! I'm a firm believer in the necessity for ventilated quilt boxes in this area. It's the best way to mitigate the cold and the damp in the hives.
Hive #1 - queenless. Lots of drone brood and plenty of new bees, but no eggs or larvae and very little going on at the entrance, when all the other hives were bustling. Dead giveaway that something was wrong. That's why I decided to inspect when I did.
I gave this hive a frame of eggs from one hive and a frame of new larvae from a 3rd hive. I kept this colony at only 1 box. They're doing fine now and will raise their own queen. I'll check again if I see something weird going on or in a month, when she should be out and laying.
Hive #2. Booming! Gorgeous striped queen. A box already full of bees. I put 2 supers on this one.
Hive #3. Booming! Gorgeous red queen. 7 frames of bees. 1 super.
Hive #4. Booming! Gorgeous blonde queen. 8 frames of bees. 2 supers.
I put the supers on now because we'll be in the spring flow before you know it. I also gave everyone a jar of 1:1 syrup to get them through the bout of cold and rain we had last week. When I went out today, they were bringing in tons of pollen and orienting like crazy. I may actually get some honey this year.
