First Complete Hive Check of the Season

Today was a beautiful day for complete hive checks! I removed the empty queen cages and am storing them in my tool box until fall when I will cage my queens. My queens are laying beautiful patterns of eggs and within the next 14 days baby honeybees will be born by the hundreds every day all summer, Lord willing. I marked a couple queens today. I will continue to feed my bees sugar water for one more week (about 1-2 more feedings), since I have drawn-out comb. For those who are using mostly bare foundation, you may want to feed sugar water until the middle or end of May in order to encourage wax building. Another way to entice faster wax building is to spray sugar water on bare foundations.I pulled off the outer insulation today and left the inner insulation boards on each side of the brood box. Next weekend would be a good time to add a second brood box below the first box because we want the babies warm and every good scientist knows that heat rises!
From the Science-Based Art of AK, LLC Beekeepers Calendar:

April 29^th – May 1^st: First Queen & Complete Hive Check (50* or warmer) Looking for eggs & larva (Do not look for queen if it is too cold) If you find no eggs, check again in three days. Do not let sugar water run out!

Keep filling feeder(s) every 3-5 days without doing a full hive check.

See Photos for examples of 
brood patterns.

Healthy pattern of eggs (1-2 days old)

Healthy larva (4-7 days old)

Healthy Larva (7-10 days old)

Spotty (Poor) Queen Pattern

Dead Queen - Laying Worker Eggs (Kill Bees!)