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Time to expand (Part 1)

Yesterday, I performed an inspection on both of my colonies. The weather in Seidmar was beautiful, 19°C, sunny and a very light breeze. I figured it would be good to get an evaluation of my colonies and see if I should expand the hives as I mentioned I would do in my previous post. The cherry blossoms are out in the lower elevations (under 500m above sea level) but in Seidmar, which is at 539m above sea level, the blossoms have not yet opened. I knew that both hives were thriving but I was surprised to see how many bees were now in the hives. The frontrunner is the queen Adriana. Her hive was literally overflowing with bees.

Adriana's colony is overflowing. Time to expand.
Copyright Jason Hotham 2016


The bees were hanging all the way through the frames right down to the varroa screen on the floor. On one frame, they had actually begun building large chunks of burr comb. They were busting out at the seams. Although there aren't any cherry blossoms out, I still decide to go ahead and give Adriana's colony a honey super.

Honey Super for Adriana.
Copyright Jason Hotham 2016



The other colony, run by queen Chewbacca, isn't as far along, but they will need a honey super within the next two weeks. I found a lot of play cups throughout Chewbacca's hive. I am not yet really worried about them swarming, but just to be on the safe side I gave them a drone frame to build on to hold them over until it is time for the honey super. Adriana's colony also received a drone frame, it is a good time to start varroa destructor control.

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