February 2013

2/22 Noticed first few blooms on Loren's almond tree were open. In the following week all the almonds trees down the creek were in full bloom. Loren's tree were a bit behind these.

During February: Placed a third deep on all of the hives and started opening up the brood nest by placing in empty frames. Moved honey frames up in the third box. The bees did very well and drew the empty frames and started drawing frames in the third box. Keep opening up the broodnest each week (I think for two weeks in total) and moving frames up. The bees at the cottage and at home ultimately drew all the frames out so as to have 3 boxes full of drawn out frames with brood almost everywhere. This whole procedure worked great and will have lots of resources for the splits in March. The feisty hive, though, did respond as well and struggled to fill the extra space.

January 2013

Number of hives: One at home and three at LA Noticed lots of drones towards from all the hives towards the end of January. Much earlier than in previous years. Check for mites and found them to be in the 10-20 range per day.