I did an inspection of the hives today. As always, I had put some sugar on top of the hives as insurance to get them through the winter. They are all still going, although two of the hives are very light. But one hive was going gangbusters (although not very heavy in the bottom box).
I read recently here that bees would rather build up or swarm than move down. It's true! They didn't swarm, but they moved up! Up into the box that I had around the sugar! We had to get the bees out, then get the comb off. We tried to get all the bees back into the box, although there were a few flying around.
They were not very happy with us, but I was not happy with them, so I guess that makes us even. Neither of the other two hives were this way, but they're not as strong as this hive, either. So in a week or to I'll go back in and see if things are going back to normal.
I put the hive-top feeders on the two weaker hives. The bees are bringing in lots of pollen now and I don't think there will be a prolonged cold spell, so I think I'm good for now.
I've never seen this before. I understand why it happened, but it was truly a surprise. A association member (that I used to work with years ago. It's a small world!) came over today and learned a lot, too. We talked about different equipment, theories, etc. So hopefully he got some time "in the bees" which I think always helps.
PS: I didn't see any hive beetles, and I only saw one mite on a bunch of drone larvae, so that's a good sign.
