The bees have all survived the winter although one hive in Ravensden is very small - first time I've managed this in a couple of years.
I bought two colonies to replace the ones lost to wasps last year. You can have problems when moving bees and to try and get over this I put some branches in front of the hives. When they were released they come out to find things very different to how they were when they last went into the hive. The branches force the bees to re-orientate themselves. When they first came out they just did short little flights but now they are in full forage mode.
I put the boxes on the hive stands where they are going to go but will give them a few days to get settled and used to their new environment before putting them in their new brood boxes. The old ones have to be returned.
As the weather is getting warmer it will soon be time to carry out my first full inspections of the season. Its thought you shouldn't open the hive up if its less than 15C, which is has been today but the forecast for the weekend is to be a bit cooler.
Several of the colonies look to be very strong and although its very early in the season, conventional wisdom is once the brood box has 8 full frames, its could be time to put a super on for them to expand into and to keep any swarming instinct as low as possible. I can get an idea
of what the frames look like without having to take them out so I will see if they need supers.
Below is a video of the Ravensden apiary and I'll do something similar for Scald End when I'm next there. Apologies for the poor picture quality.
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