It is pushing 60 degrees today so I took a look in the hives for the first time since last November. It was a mixed bag, but all in all things looked pretty good for mid-February.
A number of colonies were densely populated, with bees covering the top bars and crammed between the frames. Many had smaller clusters. Most had small patches of capped brood and I saw freshly laid eggs in several.
I also found five dead colonies, which was more than I expected based on how they looked in November. That’s a pretty high loss in my experience, but the good news is that most of the colonies I started winter with are alive and well.
I was able to take frames of honey out of the dead colonies and add them to surviving colonies that didn’t look like they had enough honey to make it to the nectar flow. And, I think there are enough colonies on track to be ready for the nectar flow to make a good crop of honey this year.
Pete