First Inspections of 2011

I made my first inspections of the hives this week.

On Saturday, the temperatures were in the low 60s (F) with sunny conditions. The next two days were overcast, and stormy, so no inspections took place. Today is sunny and warm with temperatures finally reaching into the low 80s.

From outside the hive the bees are bringing in a good deal of pollen. I have caught the bees foraging on our plum tree's blossoms and those of the dandelions on the neighbor's lawn.

On Saturday, I inspected the 3 langstroth hives, 2 of which I just installed. In the newly installed hives, I found plenty of eggs and young larvae, I also found the queen in each which wasn't all that difficult. All the queens in the newly installed packages are black and the workers packaged with them are all much lighter in color. The bees are not eating the sugar syrup provided and prefer the combs of capped honey  last year's bees have provided them. I retrieved the queen cage in each.

Today I opened the top bar hives and found pretty much the same thing. Eggs, larvae, (even some capped brood) and an active dark queen. Again, the syrup provided went pretty much uneaten. Queen cages were retrieved.