I've been concerned that the hives needed to be fed but couldn't open the hives because of the cold weather. The past couple of days the weather has been great. Sunday was in the 60s and it was the right time to do an inspection and see how the girls were doing. My beekeeper neighbor came over to lend a hand (thank you Steve).
We opened Hive #4 first and what a surprise - bees, lots of bees and honey. No changes to #4.
Nuc #1 - removed one of the brood boxes after combining the two brood boxes and left two supers - again, enough food for the remainder of the winter.
Nuc #2 - moved the super to the top and left the two brood boxes. I did put a baggie feeder on this hive. They had plenty of food but not as many bees as the other hives.
Swarm '09 -Took off the bottom brood box - it was empty of food and bees - they had moved up. So we put the three supers back on with the second on bottom, third on second and bottom on top. They were moved based on weight - the bottom being the heaviest. A baggie feeder was also put on this hive - mainly because they were moved around quite a
Some hive beetles in Hive #4 but not enough to be concerned about. Ants in a couple of the hives but now I'll put some used motor oil around the bottom of the hives and that should take care of them.
I left ample honey on the hives last season and it paid off in the bees having enough food to make it through a really cold winter. There's still winter weather to come but they should have enough food. They're bringing in pollen and the maples are blooming.
