Consistent Hive Checks

• All seven of my colonies are building population as well as honeycomb to make room for storing brood, pollen, and nectar, which will become honey by late July and into September. 
• I am hoping Jack Frost has left town for good until late October. 
• Entrances are all set at the medium size until the first week of June, weather permitting. 
• By then I expect to remove my entrance reducers altogether until fall. 
• Hive checks will take place every ten days and I am careful to ensure my queens are in the hive by either actually seeing them or seeing all four stages of brood (eggs, larva, pupa, and adult). 
• After seeing the queen or evidence of the queen, I am removing all queen cups and cells. 
• I am also removing any wax built outside of the frame area. 
• Most to all hives in the Fairbanks area should have two brood boxes on the hive by now. 

• Next weekend I will swap my brood boxes by putting the top box on the bottom board and the bottom box on the top. This entices the bees to build brood into one large nest.