First inspection 2012

[Lora]

Hi Everyone,

This weekend we finished our first inspection of the season and saw
some interesting things. Our hive has two brood chambers and we put a
shallow honey super on a few weekends ago hoping to get some of the
honey flow. The honey super has plastic frames, and although we saw
bees up there, they are not doing anything with it. I suspect they are
not interested in the plastic fake comb. This is a pity, we were
really hoping for honey.

We started the inspection from the bottom up. In the fall we had
removed one frame from the bottom chamber because it was
overwhelmingly packed and the bees were cementing some of the frames
to the box frame with comb. Due to the gap left in the bottom box, our
colony had built up an entire new hanging comb attached from the top
box into the bottom box to fill out the missing frame. As we took off
the top box, this new comb broke off. (We got to eat this honey and it
was spectacular!) In between the two boxes on top of the frames there
were tons of larvae which became exposed when the two boxes were
separated. We scraped off this comb because we don't want them
building up on top of the frames.

In the bottom box the bees are storing a little bit of honey and a
little bit of pollen. There is no brood in this box at all, just a few
frames with drone eggs. There are a lot of bees there though, I think
just storing pollen. The queen is definitely upstairs and has been
there since the fall.

In the top box, there was normal brood on about 4 frames, honey and
pollen on the edges. There was only honey and pollen in the last
frames on the right side. The trend for our bees to not build on the
left side of the hive continues, and the last frame on the left is
completely empty.

We saw at least THREE queen cells all on the same frame bottom. I
suspect many more were destroyed when we pulled the top box off. Are
they getting ready to swarm??? Considering how many empty frames there
were, and a whole empty box on the bottom and top, I don't see why
this might happen. Any advice please?? Or neighbors will NOT be
happy.

Another question - we might be moving soon and are interested in
transferring the hive, possibly to a rooftop. How can this be done,
and when is the best time to do it? I assume this is not a good time
as they are so active.

Hope everyone is enjoying the incredible spring!
Lora