With the mild winter and a relatively warm past couple of weeks, the bees have become rather active. We noticed that there were some vigorous orientation flights happening, but with a still present threat of cooler days and some rain, we were reluctant to remove the entrance reduction we had put in place. (I couldn't find our official entrance reducer, so I just propped a stick across part of the entrance, and that has been working fine.)
However a few days ago we saw a stream of bees backed up on the hive front as they tried to return from their orientation flight.
I pried up the hive cover a little and saw that the population appears robust. The threat of rain has passed, and the temperatures seem to be past risk of dropping below the 60s during the day, so we decided it was time to give the colony some more room to expand their storage and keep them from feeling crowded and prone to swarm. Today we added a honey super with some new foundation. (The old comb we kept had a little moth damage, so we are going to treat them with sunshine and then freeze them to eliminate any eggs and larvae before introducing it into the hive again.)
We dusted both of the hive bodies with powdered sugar, just as a preventative measure to help the bees knock any mites off of themselves to try and keep them at bay. This colony is hyper-hygienic, and while mites are a persistent problem, the bees have kept them in check pretty well last year.
The hive bodies are pretty full, except the end frames. Hopefully that bodes well for a strong start to the year and a plentiful harvest.
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