Spring observations

by Adam Ziegler on 2013-03-25, 9:41 am

Last fall one of the hives I had split was overcome with mites, and dropping in numbers. While the hive managed to make it past Christmas, the cluster was not very big. We had some very cold weeks through January and February.

Weather conditions today were 50 F, Sunny with little wind. On inspection today, the hive was nice and dry inside, but the bees were dead clustered around capped honey stores. It did not take long for neighboring hives to take notice, as robbers were making visits to collect up the available stores.

I was not able to find the dead queen, which makes me question if she had been lost late in the fall to some fate..