Bee honest…did you inspect this weekend?

[Moobee]

It's no use Emyr... there will always be those with itchy fingers ... My view - what are you looking for and what can you do with what you find. If you can't heft a set of luggage scales are cheap as chips and regular weighing - sorted.

Even down here on the Costa del Fareham it's not spring yet. Our blackthorn is still at least a week off and a lot of the other spring trees and shrubs are not even in bud yet.

Blackthorn is out over on the West Sussex coast and the goat willow is flowering but it's too chuffing cold for the bees to come out. Even the bumbles look chilly!

 

[Moobee]

Was hoping those who did inspect could feel comfortable replying to this thread without having the finger pointed at them. I’m just genuinely curious how others responded to a very warm weekend in March

For me - too soon to go poking about in the colonies IMHO. I'm on the West Sussex coast where it's usually very mild but despite that quick blitz of warmth, I wouldn't go breaking the propolis seals on the boxes precisely because we often get a blast of cold in mid to late March.
I am only intending to sort out one DLW hive and leave the bees until the weather is consistently warm.
Admittedly i'm itching to see how they are all doing but think you can do more harm than good right now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

bees were flying yesterday in that bit of sun we had, but it was still too cold to be out there for long without a coat on and there has been proper ice on top of any standing water in the garden and home apiary every day for the past week or so.

 

[Sutty]

I still haven't examined beyond adding a bit of fondant on one or two.
I'm itching to get in to unite several to get my colony count down, at least that means I will have spare queens!