Spring Topics: Feeding / Splits / etc

[Tom Kramer]

Hi,
I was just checking on the bees in my 3 hives. It was a goldilocks moment. One hive didn't have enough bees to fill a nuke. One had a good number with a fair amount flying around the front and some coming back with pollen. And one was bursting at the seams and the front looked like it was summer with bees coming and going.
I gave them all pollen patties.

My questions are:
Should I start feeding them sugar solution now?
Should I divide the one bursting at the seams?
If I divide now, should I let them make their own queen?
Or should I buy a new queen and do the divide when one comes available?
Or is it too early to do a divide because there are no drones to mate with yet?
Should I just throw on a super and hope to get tons of early honey?

I tried a divide last year (my first time) and didn't have much luck. They both sort of
limped along and didn't produce much even though initially they both looked like they were
going to do great. But last year seems to have been a bad year for almost everyone.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

[Tom Kramer]

Plus I saw plum trees blooming is SW Portland today near my hive that is bursting.

[drthom]

Well the hive in SW Portland that was packed full from corner to corner is giving me great experience in catching swarms.

So far I have caught 3 swarms within 50 feet of the hive. Coincidence? I think not.

On the bright side, they have all been about 4 feet off the ground. The first was on a fruit tree branch, this was the easiest as they were all on the same branch -- I just cut the branch and walked it over to where I had the hive set up.

The second was in some blackberry vines and their supporting post -- this was the most difficult since they were everywhere. I came back the next day to get the ones I missed and they had clumped up nicely on a branch.

And the last was in some flowering bushes on 3 branches -- but the branches were all thin and they dropped into my plastic box with only a small cloud that was left behind. ;D
So where I had 1 hive, I now have 4! Two at the original location, one at their neighbors and another at PCC Rock Creek.
Plus my hive at home is getting ready to swarm -- I need to get some more deep frames, I have the boxes.

[bugleman]

I have some extra small cell plastic frames if you are interested.