Mid-November Inspection

Temperatures warmed into the low-mid 50's today, so I took the opportunity to make a check of the winter stores.  Our 8 framer, hive #3, was sitting in the sun and that really made a difference as it had many bees flying while the others just had a few timid souls peeking out the bottom entrance.

All three hives had full frames of honey in the top boxes, which is the only place I peeked.  There were few bees in each hive in the top box, which is a good sign as that means they are clustering lower in the hive, which is where they should be this early winter season.  Should we get an exceptionally warm day I still would like to dig a bit deeper into #1 to see if there is any sign of a queen.  That may have to wait until spring.