What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Watched, hefted and listened to our six hives. Some bees flying; all seem okay. Gave fondant to two which were on the light side.
 
Enjoyed the First Day of Spring here on Heat Island. Beautiful day and hazel catkins will mature in a few days at this rate. Only limited flying though: scouts are not ready to call out the foragers just yet.
 
Weighed my hives this afternoon.

This is one hive: National broodbox, V floor and crownboard (without roof)

Nov 20 62 lbs
Dec 28 56 lbs
Feb 4 44 lbs

it's an old spring balance so weights are +/- but maybe it's of help for first timers....
 
Picked up a couple of comatose girls to take in doors and put in a glass. Half way back to the house and they were coming around. So tried to get back to hive but one was adament she was going up my sleeve. Put other one at hive entrance where she rushed inside. Thought the other one had dropped off. Gave my arm a few good flicks just to be sure.
1/2 an hour later feeding the birds I was stung on the elbow. How's that for an early sting? Not one sting last year. Had to smile an hour later when she flew out of my sleeve. Poor girl.
 
Not many bees left obviously in sight through the clear crownboard (a small cluster on 4 seams), but hoping for the best. I wonder if one advantage to the howling gale method may be that it reduces flying and thus mortality. No doubt I will form a view over the years.
 
Not too cold this afternoon (8 C) so I decided to have a look to see if the 1kg bag of fondant I put on as a New Year present had been consumed. On lifting the edge of my eke I could see that nearly all the fondant was gone but there were rather a lot of bees both on top of the empty bag and some actually inside it. After a brief attempt to brush them off I decided to leave them alone until a warmer day when the disturbance might be better tolerated. Not sure how I'm going to get them out of the bag though. Perhaps I'll just take the bag out and leave it on the landing board .
 
1/2 an hour later feeding the birds I was stung on the elbow. How's that for an early sting? Not one sting last year. Had to smile an hour later when she flew out of my sleeve. Poor girl.

Beat that by a week at our Association Apiary... straight out of hive onto my wrist.. bang.. (feeding fondant)...

Another 49+ to come based on 2013
 
checked to see all was well. odd one or two out and about. Some hive consuming a lot of fondant others have not touched it
 
Waded through 6 inches of water to get to the hives. All hives on a dry bit though. No bee's flying and no surprise! Only one hive has needed fondant and that is running low. When the wind drops and it stops raining I will pop another block of fondant on for them.
 
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