First inspection and putting the QE in

[DryRedFrog]

Hey folks!

Am after some reassurance that I haven't buggered things up!

I overwintered my national hive with a full super on top, no QE. There's been plenty of action around the hive for about a month, lots of pollen going in etc. so today, given that it was nice and warm with no wind I went and had a look.

The super was fully drawn, with stores in the outer frames, eggs and a small amount of capped brood. There were a couple of capped drone cells and some drawn drone comb. There were plenty of bees and the hive seemed pretty full.

I found HM and put her into the brood box, then popped a QE on. So far so good I thought.

Now I'm worrying! I didn't check the brood box at all. Will the queen be ok down in the brood? I'm hoping the brood frames will have stores and brood, but I didn't actually look as I wanted to be as quick as possible.

Do I need to go back tomorrow?

Ta!

[NigelP]

No.
All will be fine don't worry.
Keep inspections short and sweet at this time of year.

[AdamD]

Picking up the queen is always a worry until you have done it plenty of times - so it seems like you have done what you needed and there is some sealed stores in the hive. As you say, so far so good. You can check stores levels at the next inspection; if they are flying well, then there should be some increase - you can check for liquid stores which means that they are bringing something in.

[MickBBKA]

I rearranged 4 colonies at the weekend putting QE on and supers as most colonies now have nectar stored. Looking at the forecast I am glad I only done 4, it looks cold and windy for at least another week. No bees flying today. My earlier optimism looks a bit premature. Spring came and left in a week.

[Steve 1972]

I never let my guard down till mid April Mick..

[Patrick]

I never let my guard down Steve . I am the Inspector Clouseau of beekeeping (quite literally!). Not now, Cato!

I think we can be a bit keen to get in there as soon as possible. As long as they are alive and have grub, there is not much useful to do for a while yet around here. I did check a few last weekend - several seem a bit stores bound which is unexpected.