For many years, I have been very proud to record substantially less losses than the averages reported by the state. Through 2017, my worse year was a little under 18% losses – averaging more in the 6 to 8% range in other years. But, this year is clearly going to be different. I have checked around half of my hives and am definitely moving towards a 30 or 40% loss due to the Fall/Winter of 2017//2018. I have a lot more inspections to do, but the one big difference this year is the surprizing number of hives with tons of honey and just a handful of dead bees (with queen) found in the middle of them. In my view, the bees simply did not have enough bees to keep the hive warm. Maybe the hard Winter in January was too much for them. On the plus side, I like to view these kinds of years as Mother Nature’s way of weeding out the weak.

Many of my hives have queens with White marks, meaning they were born in 2016. Fortunately, those that made it are, for the most part, doing very well. In fact, I am now seeing large patches of capped drone brood, a sign that I use for starting my Nuc creation. In the past, I would wait for Walking Drones (see a drone or two walking on the frames), but I have found that queens raised during those early days are usually not as well bred (and don’t last as long.) But, if I wait a bit later (usually 2 weeks or so), for when the queens really start to lay lots of Drone eggs, I generally start to get much better queens. So, when I spot a grouping of 50 or more drone brood, it is a sign for me that it is time to start my Nucs (which will raise their own queens. Usually, I have created several Nucs by mid-March, so this year was a bit of an anomaly. I think this year has been more “normal” in many respects, compared to the last decade.

With that discovery, I created my first Nucs of the season and mark several hives for Nuc creations over the next two weeks. I generally wait for at least 7 frames of brood or eggs in one box (usually top) and evidence that the queen has started to lay in the second box (usually bottom) before I start taking Nucs. Several were within a week of being ready, but a few were ready today.

Based on the activity that I am seeing, it seems likely that Henrico swarms could show up by Tax Day. Of course, there will be the outliers that come earlier, but I am thinking that late April will be good for swarms (which I want more than years past, due to the losses of this year!) I am probably jinxing myself, so let’s hope for solid weather with the occasional rain for the next couple of months – no extremes!!