It was a recently combined hive, recombined after a split from a newly established colony, if that makes sense. I took no honey off them and all supers had significant stores. A strong population of bees has come through winter, but I take your point.
Thanks. It feels like spring today and I wanted to rearrange the stack (3 supers left on over winter). I'm keeping fingers crossed that I missed her and the prolonged wet has put her off laying.
My first inspection of the year today (my 1 and only hive). Bees have been quite active for a while so far this spring, some pollen going in, so hopes were high. However, I couldn't see a Queen and there was no brood or eggs. An optimist might say the cells looked polished, but I'm not so sure...
Just taking off my honey crop for this year and, frustratingly, the majority (large majority) of super frames are only partially capped (say 30 to 50%). I'm aware of advice to shake the frame to see if unripe honey comes out and also that I could buy a hygrometer to check water content, but I'd...
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