Late Winter Honeybee Hive Manipulations

Reader Contribution by Betty Taylor
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Beekeeping is about weather watching. On February 18th, the Sandhill cranes flew over my middle Tennessee home on their migration north, the mercury on the front porch hit 68 degrees, and the honeybees broke their cluster, flying and madly about the farm.

Assessing Beehives

By the next day, the bees were bringing in light tan pollen. The weather service predicted a few warm days before winter returned. This was the break in the weather that I had been waiting for. Our spring bloom is still 2 months away, but this was a great opportunity to check on the bees. I had not opened a hive since last fall, when I’d inspected and prepared them for winter. (See “End-of-Summer Hive Inspection” at PersimmonRidgeHoneyFarm.com.)

On the first day of the warmup, I visited my 3 apiaries and each of their hives. I was careful not disturb the brood chambers, where the bees cluster in cold weather and where the queen was beginning to lay brood, but I did manipulate the boxes. It has been my habit to run 2 deep chambers topped by 1 shallow super of honey all year. In all but one hive, I found that the bees had moved up into the 2nd deep brood chamber.

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