Long Live the Queen

We have had a few days of gorgeous weather and are expecting several more days of the same lovely weather. Bug and I got a chance to peak our heads into Bolt our 2nd beehive. 

We were thinking we were going to need to move some of the frames around so the honey filled frames are in the center.

Bees die often during this time due to starvation. They had stored enough to survive the winter. They just need enough to make it until the flowers can produce enough nectar to sustain them. We could still have a week or so of cold weather. Once bees make a cluster in the cold weather they can only move up and not sidewards. They can die inches away from honey from starvation. This is often the time that this can happen.

We were so delighted to see that all the frames in the center were jammed packed with honey. The girls made good use of the candy board.

 This is from Bolt last summer.

Then the best news is that we seen the queen! Long live the queen! She was looking healthy and moving around quite nicely. Once I seen her I didn't want to go into the bottom brood box. So, we quietly cheered our Queen Bolt on and put the other frames back. 

We added some sugar syrup to help her start to build up so we can have a split this coming spring. So far everything is looking good. Bug and I can almost say we have one season of beekeeping under our hooded beesuits.