Update

It has been a few weeks since my last post so it is time to catch you up. I ended up being able to get a package from Georgia to replace Hive 1 and installed it a week and a half ago. Last weekend the queen was released and the foragers were out and about bring back pollen and nectar. Unfortunately no eggs yet but it is still early. This year I think I will replace the queen with a local one. I was hoping to try to overwinter a nuc in the back yard but my homeowner's association is giving me some problems so I'm not sure that will happen. Oh, and of course when I was setting up the hive I forgot a couple of frames. I had to put one in that didn't have any foundation. A week after install it was about a third built out. It is interesting to see the natural process of building without foundation.

Hive 2 is still struggling. The queen just won't start laying. As my last try I dumped a few hundred bees from the package into Hive 2 thinking a little extra coverage for the brood might spur some new egg laying. Nothing doing. Same small area of capped brood there has been since winter. I just need to find a queen before they completely die out. Can I count this colony as surviving the winter? Hmm.