The plan today was to put supers on all ready for spring. the bluebells are out and there are lots of flowers around. The colonies were looking strong last inspection so it is about time. I also like to get supers on early with the poly hives as they are easier to keep warm. There is a danger with wooden hives in putting supers on too early as they cool off and the bees cannot keep the space warm.
Light Blue Wood
This hive is doing well and got a flow super. this full flow super has 7 frames of flow honey.
Red and White Poly
This hive is doing well and got a flow super. Hybrid super with 5 flow frames and 3 cut comb frames.
Purple Wood
Doing well but I didn’t have a spare super. This hive was not as full as the dark blue so the super went to the dark blue. I will put a shallow super on this with some cut combe at a later date.
Dark Blue Wood
This hive is doing well and got a flow super. Hybrid super with 5 flow frames and 3 cut comb frames. The hive scales malfunctioned and had to be sent back to beehive monitoring in Slovakia.
Blue Poly
The blue nuc had outgrown the space of the blue nuc and needed a full sized hive. Blue poly was free so blue nuc is now blue poly. The transfer went well and the bees are settled.
Green Poly
This hive got a flow hybrid super on top.
Red Poly
No change here. Bees are using top and bottom entrances
Collective
The 2 poly hives that have a new super had their bottom entrances closed completely for 2 days to encourage the bees to use the upper entrance in the flow super section, above the queen excluder, as shown in this post. The lower section was closed at night when all the bees were inside. Upper section remains fully open to worker bees but closed to drones and queens. on wishing to escape the hive the bees will find the upper entrance through the queen excluder and learn to come and go from here. this will encourage them to use the top entrance for nectar return. the bottom entrance will be small and used for pollen and drones.