I hived ten packages on Sunday, despite the nasty weather. The bees had been caged for four days and several packages really needed out--they already had a strong ammonia smell, meaning they were starting to eliminate in the package/cage. They all seem to be doing well, even though we normally don't like to handle them outside below 50 degrees or so--Sunday it was in the mid-40's and pouring rain. Very much less than ideal. I did discover that three of last year's hives were clinging to life, but only had a few hundred bees left. I took the queens and added the new packages in with their new queens. I imagine the old bees were killed, but hopefully some of them were allowed to stay. I'll be using the dead queens to make swarm attractant.
As of today, I've added double feeders on each hive with sugar syrup. I treated this first batch with fumigillin, which is a treatment for nosema disease. Some people do this routinely for new packages, but I normally don't. However, since my bees went into used equipment and the weather is still very cold and varied, I thought it would be a good idea (nosema gets out of hand when the bees can't get outside to eliminate, i.e. in cold weather when they will instinctively stay in a cluster to keep the queen warm).
This year I'll be doing an "exchange" feeding method, i.e. I've purchased forty feeder jars (twenty will be on hives at any given time), so I can take full ones to the apiary and trade them out with the empty ones. This saves lots of driving, and also allows me to clean jars after each feeding.
I did find that my more shady locations had pretty significant quantities of chalkbrood, and those frames will be destroyed. For next winter, all hives will be overwintered in the sunniest location.
At this point in the season, it's time to inventory equipment and get rid of the old junk, and also to purchase a few more supers and get all new woodenware painted. I'm a bit behind the curve but will catch up soon.
bmc
Finally have a warm, sunny afternoon. The bees are going crazy, with orientation flights, finding pollen, etc. I've already seen them around the neighborhood on the neighbors' flowers, etc. A couple of shots for you. You can click on a picture to see a bigger version of it.
