One of my successful over wintered hives.
Key dates and log of activities
23/4/26 Now has a swarm picked up from Rudwick. I was going to put them in the red nuc but the first part of the swear were still in the hive so I thought I’d just add them and see how they go. This hive is not likely to give me any honey this year so I could put the red super onto the white hive.
2/3/26 Hive survived the winter, but only just. The bees had completely blocked the entrance and the whole of the base with rotting bees and filth. They were using the top of the hive where they had pushed up the lid as an entrance. Base was removed and cleaned before returning. Would be nice to save these bees as they were a top producer last year. Super removed to help the small colony to heat the space and better manage their temperature / humidity.
4/7/25 Harvested 4 full flow frames. The frames were fully capped across the entire area. I thought this hive was in dire need of emptying however there were 3 frames that were full but uncapped. i could not harvest these as they were not >80% capped. Frames returned back to the hive to be refilled. Will try and harvest again in late August or first week of September. The remaining 3 frames will be fully capped by then.
28-06-25 – All frames are >80% capped so it is good to go. Just enough space for one more week of activities just to finish it off and give the blue hive a chance to finish as well. Will harvest next week.
18/5/25 Reconnected the hive scales and complete the set-up. They were fairly angry so I didn’t open them up to find the hive heart for battery change hence the lack of internal measurements. Previous inspections showed a mass of honey after an early spring so this could be up for a harvest of a couple of flow frames.
Plan: change battery of the hive heart at next opening.