Is it warm enough?

[bpmurray]

The weather folk claim that it'll get nice over this weekend, with temperatures up into the mid-teens. This gives me a chance to see what exactly they've been up to over the winter and, hopefully, mark & clip the queen I didn't decorate in September. One of the hives is very strong already and I expect that I'll have to split this at some point in the year, so I thought about adding another brood box, allowing the queen to populate this too, assuming that she's already working away on the current BB.

However, I'm concerned that adding this extra space might be just a little too much, particularly since I'm sure we'll have some frosty nights over the next few weeks - is it still too early? Should I use a 3xdummy board? Assuming it's safe, would it also be OK to feed 1:1 syrup to encourage them to draw out the new foundation?

Edit: Th hives are Nationals, one poly and one cedar - the wooden one is the one that's strong.

 

[enrico]

Unless it is much warmer where you are it is far too cold for me! Still not opened them once yet let alone thinking of adding brood box's!
You will have to go by your own weather patterns!
E

 

[snelgrove]

If the bees are flying well and it's warm with little wind then yes I would say open up and mark and clip the queen, but reckon still to early to be adding boxes of foundation. I no its tempting but far better to wait in my opinion.

 

[bpmurray]

They've promised highs of 12-16°C from Saturday onwards, with light variable winds. Sounds OK to clean up & examine, but may be too early for anything else. I suppose they'll be annoyed at having all that nice brace comb hacked away anyway!

 

[snelgrove]

They've promised highs of 12-16°C from Saturday onwards, with light variable winds. Sounds OK to clean up & examine, but may be too early for anything else. I suppose they'll be annoyed at having all that nice brace comb hacked away anyway!

12 to 16 °C that's what we get here in June haha

 

[dexter's shed]

I did a very quick inspection on my two garden hives, last year I left it too late and my one hive swarmed so wanted to be on the ball this year, they had a good amount of stores and pollen, both had BIAS, didn't spot the queens, but not too worried, they seem happy enough

 

[Swarm]

All very well to have the odd nice day but what is the night time temp? Probably still flippin' cold like it is here.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If the bees are flying well and it's warm with little wind then yes I would say open up and mark and clip the queen,

Way to early to go interfering with the queen - she could get damaged - the workers may get a bit upset and ball her - and where are the drones to mate with the emergency queen they may have to raise - or for that matter where would you source a replacemet queen?
The most I'll be doing this week and the next is - cleaning and putting a new bellows on the smoker and putting together more boxes and frames. And the week after - Poland and the convention

 

[bpmurray]

From the responses I think I need to be conservative, although I will have a look inside. If there's 7 frames of brood, I'll add the extra brood box, but otherwise I'll leave well enough alone.

 

[Bosleeu]

Might be worth marking and clipping only once you see drones around just in case something happens to her during the clipping or shortly after. You never know.

 

[Hawklord]

If adding a second brood box put it under the existing one. I moved my colony's on Monday and I'll be checking the queens are ok asap.

 

[Moggs]

If the colony is strong enough, perhaps a second brood box, if consistently warm and sufficient stores / nectar coming in (it's only just April). Would be futile to put foundation in there as the energy needed to build it out would pose a huge demand on resources, unless the warmer weather is here to stay and there is a flow on or you are feeding. You acknowledge that there is talk of frost and temperatures are still generally low. Still too early to feed syrup here, imo. Wouldn't mess with queen yet either. Is this for the bees' benefit or yours? Clue is in the question


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[bpmurray]

If the colony is strong enough, perhaps a second brood box, if consistently warm and sufficient stores / nectar coming in (it's only just April). Would be futile to put foundation in there as the energy needed to build it out would pose a huge demand on resources, unless the warmer weather is here to stay and there is a flow on or you are feeding. You acknowledge that there is talk of frost and temperatures are still generally low. Still too early to feed syrup here, imo. Wouldn't mess with queen yet either. Is this for the bees' benefit or yours? Clue is in the question


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Well, they've been pretty busy and there's loads of gorse in flower and the blackthorn is starting to flower too but not much else. The temperatures could be as high as 18 next week, but night time it'll go down to probably as low as 4.

My real motivation is that I'll be away on business for a couple of weeks from next weekend and I don't want them to run out of room in the meantime.

This may, of course, be completely irrelevant: if there's plenty of room I'll just leave them bee and wait with everything else for 3 weeks. I know my other hive is fine - one of the frames isn't even completely drawn out from before the winter, so they definitely are OK for now.

Thanks for the sound advice and constructive criticism - my updated plan is:

• Check for brood and eggs
• Clean the floor
• Remove the brace comb on top of the frames
• Remove the eke allowing the comb to be built
• Move any remaining fondant to on top of the crown board
• If they really are running out of room, put a BB underneath with dummy board to limit the amount of empty space.

 

[Moggs]

Unlikely to be running out of room this early. That implies a deep almost full of brood. It's room to lay, with adequate stores that should be guiding you,.


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[Fatbee]

Last year spring was very early so just be more patient this year - at the moment there is very little forage for nectar to come in. However, a week of mid teen temps and things will get started - until then I'm sitting tight.

 

[Karsal]

Surely hives can be inspected during the day when temperatures are 11 and 12 degrees as long as its quick. Yes temp does drop at night and we can get frost but we do not open the hives during the dark and frosty nights!
We opened them up when it was a warm still day.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Surely hives can be inspected during the day when temperatures are 11 and 12 degrees as long as its quick.

Experienced beekeepers are more likely to be able to inspect quickly than those who do their first ever spring inspection because, even with support and guidance and a lot of book-reading, they don't actually know what to expect.

It's also quite normal to spare the time to be amazed by what the bees have been up to during the winter, which makes it all take much longer.

 

[jd101k2000]

My experience of more experienced bee keepers is that they do their first inspection later in the year than beginners.

The ones I have spoken to say that most problems that you might spot cannot be sorted out this early... and you are more likely to cause problems that will set back a healthy colony.

Resist the temptation! Let your bees do their thing!

 

[bpmurray]

So I check ed he hives today - beautiful, warm, although not much sun.
Hive 1 went into winter not particularly strong and now has 3½ frames of brood and a few frames of honey with 2 frames being drawn out (they were plain foundation in Sept), so there's plenty of room but not huge quantities of food so I'm leaving the fondant.
Hive 2 was like something you'd expect in June. A full 6 frames of brood with everything else packed with stores. Above the frames, where I had been feeding with fondant, was packed with brace comb. So I removed the brace comb and the eke, and put the remainder of the fondant above the crownboard. I also put another broodbox with 6 undrawn frames and the rest dummy boards underneath the broodbox - they should have plenty of room now. There were drone cells too, and a single play cup (at least I think it was - maybe they were considering leaving!).

Now I think I can leave them alone until the end of the month - they should be all OK for room, and they're otherwise healthy colonies.