Spring Checkerboarding

Haven't visited my hives in almost a month!  The weather has been too cold and wet.  I was afraid that the massive rain storm yesterday would linger into today and keep me from visiting my girls, but Mother Nature cooperated.  It was a beautiful sunny, spring-like day with temps breaking into the 60s.  I timed my visit for around 1:30pm to peak with the highs.

My purpose today was to check that everyone was alive and kicking, and to checkerboard the two brood boxes (switch their positions) in an attempt to mitigate the chance of the hive absconding/swarming this spring.  By swapping the two brood boxes, the bees (which have moved high up into the hive over the winter leaving the lower brood box empty, will think they have plenty of expansion room for laying eggs - and won't be tempted to find a better home.)

Both hives were massively busy - lots of comings and goings - every returning bee loaded with pollen legwarmers - so puffy that they'd even make Jane Fonda envious.  Most were carrying the boldest red pollen that I've ever seen - I'm talking carmen red!  I wonder where they found that?  Inside the hive was a veritable rainbow of pollen ranging from bright yellow and orange, to muted green and blue.  It's nice to see lots of pollen - there's been so little since the drought started.

Both hives had eggs and larvae in various stages of development, so I'm pretty sure both queens are alive and active.  As a special treat, Maybelle made herself seen today.  I've haven't sighted her since August.  As you recall, Maybelle's hive has become quite aggressive.  And I've been unable to get a good look inside the deepest brood box since October due to their nasty pelting behavior - bad bees, bad bees!  I was convinced that they had re-queened the hive and it had become Africanized, but obviously I was wrong.  Oh well, off with her head anyway.  A few weeks ago I ordered a new queen that will be delivered later this spring.  Once the new queen shows up, I'm going to play the role of King Henry VIII and pinch Maybelle's little head off.  I just don't like dealing with an aggressive hive - regardless of how much more honey they produce.

Speaking of honey, I was expecting to find the hives depleted after our relatively dry winter - but was excited to see that the top-most supers were loaded with capped honey!  In both hives, 6 of the 8 frames were capped out.  Guess we're getting ready for a big flow - can't wait to pull in my first spring harvest (last year there was no flow because of the drought).  Perhaps this will coincide with our short-lived morel mushroom season, that is looking great from a weather perspective.

I'm struggling whether to order more honey jars or not - afraid I'll jinks things if I order before the flow.  Sorta like counting your honey before it's capped.