Hive Inspection
On first opening a hive in early April the first thing I noticed was the warmth emanating from the hole in the head board. During the winter months the bees maintain a steady 60 degree F – this is the reason for their need for so much in the way of winter stores. To maintain such a temperature while the outside chill can be as low – 10 (in the U.K. currently in my location) requires the girls to turn stored honey into heat energy. Later in the winter months in preparation for the spring they have to increase this temperature to 95 degrees F – astounding – in order to bring the queen into lay.
This is the time to be biting your finger nails that all your hard work began in August preparing the girls for winter pays off. Have I killed off enough of the Varroa, was their hive well insulated against condensation, did they have enough stores, did ………. Worse than giving birth I can tell you. I jump ahead of myself.
Cracking the head board and lifting out the frames
- wonderful!
In this picture you can clearly see all the components required by the bees in a healthy hive (except queen cells). Around the outer edges at the top are stores of capped honey. In the center and slightly to the right is a ring of capped worker brood cells surrounding a number of cells with larva, to the bottom right are a few capped drone brood cells. Between the capped honey and capped brood cells there are plenty of pollen cells interspersed with unripe uncapped honey cells. The bees going about their business are workers.
Take a good look at the pollen cells – are the colours a surprise?
Capped brood a la shortbread biscuit style
This frame encapsulates all that is desireable to a bee keeper. Beautiful compact brood cells capped with a lovely shortbread coloured seal of wax. Plenty of attendant house worker bees. Note the hi-tech gloves 
All this brood is the product of the winter bee, those hardy little souls who have endured the winter, brought the queen into lay and then tended the larva, capped the brood and survived long enough to see the new generation take up their duties.
