Author: The Moderator

All 5 Niagara Hives were inspected.

Hive, (001-002) was opened and inspected. Hive had good pollen and honey stores. The top box appeared to be mostly empty with only a dozen or so bees. The lower box was not very full of bees either. The queen was found and hundreds of eggs were seen in cells. However, none of the eggs were hatched nor was there any capped brood. I am concerned about this hive’s late start or possible problem. No smoke or veil was used.

Hive, (004-005) was opened and inspected. Hive had good pollen and honey stores. The number of bees was significantly higher than other hives. The queen was laying a large number of eggs and there were many locations of capped brood. A huge increase in this hive will be seen soon.

Hive, (019) was opened and inspected. Hive had good pollen and honey stores. This hive had extremely small numbers just 3 weeks ago and has seemed to bounce back a little bit. I will continue to shelter this hive during cold weather. Good looking amounts of brood, larva and eggs. The queen activity looks good.

Hive, (016-017) was opened and inspected. Hive had good pollen and honey stores. Number of bees was average compared to other hives but still far greater than (001-002) . This Warre hive had 3 frames of brood and the numbers look stable and healthy. The Queen activity looks excellent. No smoke or veil was used.

Split (003) was opened and inspected. No signs of queen cells are seen. No smoke or veil was used with thishive.

A quick look into the Corona property hives. Colony (025) shows approximately the same number of bees as earlier in the month. No significant growth is seen with this queen and the month of March.

Colony (28-29) still continues to grow at an astonishing rate. The colony is taking up sugar water and back filling some of the brood chamber a bit. The colony was extremely strong and 2 frames were removed for a third split for this month. These splits are likely too early in the season to produce viable colonies. however, we will either combine these bees back to the mother colony or use these splits as breeding colonies in April.

Mother Colony (28-29) was opened and checked for new eggs. All empty frames from last weeks split were now full again with eggs and larva. 2 frames were removed from the mother colony and placed into a 5 frame Nuc (003). Mother colony still has 3 frames of almost solid brood and larva to stabilize with. New split (003) was moved to the Niagara property.

Split (001) was moved to the Corona property along side the mother colony.

Split (030) was opened and checked for queen cell progress. The queen cell is now capped and the queen should be emerging in the next few days. This split is about 5 days behind the normal expected queen cell timeline. A few numbers of the brood in this split were killed by cold temperatures. It is my fear that this queen cell may too have been damaged by the cold weather. I will check the cell for a hatched queen in 4 days. If no queen has emerged, then we will reseed with a new frame of eggs.

Colony Split (01), Mother Colony(28-29), was opened and checked for queen cells. The colony was split one week ago on 03-14. Three queen cells were found. No more inspections will be performed until later in development cycle. Hive should be moved soon to appropriate breeding yard.

Colony Split (30), Mother Colony(28-29), was checked for queen cells. Colony was started one week prior on 03-07. Only one queen cells was found. No more inspections will be performed until further along in development cycle. Hive is located next to mother colony.

Mother Colony (28-29) was split with 2 frames of brood and 3 resource frames from other died off colonies was created. This new queen-less colony (01) was moved over to the Niagara property.