Ummm. Even I know winter bees are ornery.
I got lucky and fed my 2 hives at home some old honey this past Sunday afternoon. Worried about one of them so I am going to check the cluster size next weekend. Still got to get some sugar on the farm bees.
Still have so much to learn so this is an honest question; i.e. not trying to "sharpshoot" anyone. Why do you need/want to check the cluster size? Of course we are a different area but why checking my bees again yesterday to make sure they had enough sugar ( mountain camp) all I wanted to see was that I had lots of bees feeding and bees coming and going. Weather was sunny, some wind, and about 60 at noon when I opened my hives.
Bees were clam so I just wore a veil, popped the top, added more sugar to only two hives as the rest had enough. Had the smoker lit but not needed. Granted I did not pull any frames, just moved a couple in each hive enough to see what was still stored in the super left from the fall Goldenrod flow.
Did my winter OAV treatment a couple of weeks ago and only plan to to check that they have food every couple of week and for the most part leave them alone till things start blooming here around the first of March. What else should I be doing?
