Hello, 2018

Pollen is starting to come in at a rapid pace, and with a bank holiday of President's Day, I pulled the first frames of the new year. It was a good thing, because my nuc's had lots to show me. First off, they'd strengthened over the winter from when I last left them.

New wax is a beautiful sight to behold, especially in February. It means that the bees are doing fantastic, and could use some more room. When I see new wax, I know that the queen is laying, because young bees make new wax. And they also make wax when they need extra places to store food and lay eggs.

This nuc queen laid in every cell she had.  So I doubled her room and gifted the colony some frames of drawn comb. It was great to see no Varroa mites in these cells. My winter oxalic treatment apparently has done the bees well.

And voila, the first frame of brood for 2018. It's a glorious sight to see a pretty rock solid brood pattern this early in the season, and the queens raring to go. There was no sign of drone cells on this President's Day, so I've got a small window to prep for swarm season. But that's only a couple weeks away. Hello, 2018!