 Using a block of rendered wax and a blowtorch to apply wax to frames to encourage bees to draw wax. Photo by Eric Malcolm, March 11, 2026. | Time in the Yard: 4 hours 5 minutes Avg Time per Colony: 17.5 minutes Time in Barn: 6 hours Total Colonies: 23 Temperature (°F): Hi: 84° Low: 25° Avg: 54.9° Total Precipitation: 0.66” |
Actions:
In the barn: we mixed 25lbs of pollen substitute and formed into 1lb patties, purchased bags of sugar, mixed six 5-gallon buckets of 1:1, and waxed thirty deep frames.
In the yard: we finished performing first rounds of full colony health inspections (5), fed colonies to stimulate brood rearing and comb building, combined 2 drone layer (DL) colonies with 2 smaller queen right (QR) colonies, removed unused equipment from the apiary. Added boxes of foundation (frames) to strong colonies to begin drawing comb (3).
All colonies are beginning to increase brood production. Most colonies have at least some capped brood. A few colonies are just starting to cap brood. Drones seen walking in strong colonies. Capped drones that we uncapped were at or between the larval or white-eyed pupae stage. Most colonies inspected this week all had around 1 super of capped food stores. The feeding was intended to stimulate colonies to produce more brood for heavy splitting planned for early April due to plans to do heavy splitting.
Reflections:
It was frustrating and challenging doing a newspaper combine while fighting against high winds. We are looking forward to equalizing all our colonies in a few weeks once they are stronger. We forgot to charge our OAV applicator batteries over the weekend, so we did not finish applying treatments this week. We will need to complete our initial prophylactic treatments next week.
Things in bloom: Crocus, Snowdrop, Silver Maple, Red Maple, Common Chickweed, Purple Deadnettle, Wild Daffodil, Ivy-leaved Speedwell
In the barn: we mixed 25lbs of pollen substitute and formed into 1lb patties, purchased bags of sugar, mixed six 5-gallon buckets of 1:1, and waxed thirty deep frames.
In the yard: we finished performing first rounds of full colony health inspections (5), fed colonies to stimulate brood rearing and comb building, combined 2 drone layer (DL) colonies with 2 smaller queen right (QR) colonies, removed unused equipment from the apiary. Added boxes of foundation (frames) to strong colonies to begin drawing comb (3).
- Fed 1gal of 1:1 (14) and .5 to 1lb of pollen sub (12).
All colonies are beginning to increase brood production. Most colonies have at least some capped brood. A few colonies are just starting to cap brood. Drones seen walking in strong colonies. Capped drones that we uncapped were at or between the larval or white-eyed pupae stage. Most colonies inspected this week all had around 1 super of capped food stores. The feeding was intended to stimulate colonies to produce more brood for heavy splitting planned for early April due to plans to do heavy splitting.
Reflections:
It was frustrating and challenging doing a newspaper combine while fighting against high winds. We are looking forward to equalizing all our colonies in a few weeks once they are stronger. We forgot to charge our OAV applicator batteries over the weekend, so we did not finish applying treatments this week. We will need to complete our initial prophylactic treatments next week.
Things in bloom: Crocus, Snowdrop, Silver Maple, Red Maple, Common Chickweed, Purple Deadnettle, Wild Daffodil, Ivy-leaved Speedwell