Today really felt like a spring day going up to the apiary - 9 degrees, with sunshine - warm enough to not need a big coat on!Faye and I systematically went round each of the hives - which have been fairly untouched since we locked them up for the winter. We’d taken sugar and feeders along, just in case any were on their last legs.
But we were in luck! All the colonies seemed to be thriving, with most still having at least a full frame of capped honey untouched since last year. They were bringing in some pollen too, and some cells seemed to have liquid honey in them - although its difficult to know if this is fresh, or just recently uncapped.
I moved the bag of sugar off the poly hives (they’d not touched it, or much of the hardened feeder pieces) and put it into the wood hive - although in all likelihood it won’t get eaten there either. We’ll put a stimulating feed on at the start of March to get the queen laying and a fresh batch of bees ready for the spring blooms.
