Bees were humming today

[Mary Celley]

So nice to see the bees out and happy today.  The birds were singing, bees flying, snow melting.  Live is good.  Mary

[Marty VanHaren]

Very relieved to find all 4 of my hives, from new 3lb packages from Mary Celley, bustling around the hives. Some had orange pollen on their hind legs!

These packages were installed Easter weekend.
They went into deeps with 2-3 empty center frames, 2 pollen frames and the rest honey with some pollen.

I had 4 layers of tarps covering them for a week of the coldest days week. Checked, just lifted the covers, after the 4/8-9 snow event, all good.

Added top feeders with 10lbsof honey in each on Sunday 4/15.

Today, checked frames.

Each had at least 3 frames with large areas of capped brood on both sides of each frame some had started more brood, some capped lots of larva.

The were making new comb, and filling empty comb with the honey I gave them.

They should have the top feeders empty by Sunday. The will get the first supers Sunday or Monday depending on weather forecast.

[Tom Borchardt]

Out checking hives from packages installed on April 9.  Somewhat expecting the worst given the weather since then, but happy to report all is well.  These were the big 3 lb packages from Mary Celley, installed in one medium box on drawn comb and 2 frames of honey.  Bees now covering all 10 frames in the one box, so I am adding a second, also drawn comb and an additional 2 frames of honey.   Bees are bringing in light yellow pollen.

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[Mary Celley]

Yep, I have installed packages from the three loads I have done so far.  All loads on different weeks are amazing.  The first load of course is a bit further along.  Willow is coming in today and every load has abundant frames of brood and eggs.  If you have honey frames and drawn comb you can install packages early.  All those you tubes that say don't do it are missing out.  You Tube videos don't know everything.  These bees are so far ahead of the game.  However, you  cannot install a 2lb package on foundation under these conditions.  I never sell to people that have this situation.  If they do, I only sell 3 lb packages and  suggest they buy honey frames and drawn comb from me.  Good news, dandelions have not even come out yet!

[John Thompson]

Just checked mine today. Not much outside activity, probably due to the overcast I guess. 

Insides were pretty busy. 1st hive had some capped honey, but didn't see any brood or eggs, but then again, I didn't want to shake the bees off yet for a better look.

2nd hive I saw capped brood and honey very easily. 

Replenished syrup and covered up again. Next weekend, I'll see if that 1st hive has a laying queen or not.

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[Mark Evans]

& Mary... I've got lots of capped brood, larvae & eggs in these hives as of today, so they look like they're getting ready to kick into gear, hopefully, starting this wk!

Thank you, again!

Mark

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From: "John Thompson" <johntho...@gmail.com>
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2018 2:02:59 PM
Subject: Re: [madbees] Re: Bees were humming today

[Zac Alexander]

What a day! The yellow jackets are out. This one found my coffee.

On Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 7:50:41 PM UTC-5, Mary Celley wrote:

[Greg V]

Yellow jackets are not really out.
What you see is just a single poor queen that you got - no worries there.
She was not going to rob anyone.

But bees from nearby yard (not mine) robbed out clean an empty hive in my backyard in one single day.

They did not risk it to break into the active hive - a good thing.

So be aware when feeding; reduce your entrances.
Robbing is possible.

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[Greg V]

I promptly went around the yard with sticky tape - closed tight all the empty hives around that have honey inside.
Too many bees are just scanning the area for easy loot (not much flow is out there, just pollen).