Completing Full Hive Checks

The bees arrived on 4/15/17 and on 4/18/17 the queen cage corks were replaced with mini marshmallows. Feeders have been topped off with 1:1 sugar water. Tomorrow, 4/23/17 I will be completing full hive checks on all seven of my colonies. I have four Buckfast and three Italian colonies. Today, during the warmest part of the day I removed my entrance reducers to allow a larger exit and entrance and will replace them, with the smallest entrance open, before the outside temperature drops below 50*. I observed workers arriving at the hive, pollen baskets loaded with pollen from willow trees. I will continue to fill sugar feeders every two to three days and keep my hives insulated from the inside and outside until Jack Frost has finally been kicked out of town for the summer.   Anyone who is taking my summer course can show up at 3:00PM tomorrow 4/23/17 to shadow my first full-hive checks.

This is a photo of Pam and I with four queens being stored in my new queen nuc.