The sun finally peaked out of a dreary morning, so we were able to check on the caged Russian queens which were introduced to Nucs in our main breeding yard a few days ago. Several queens are out on comb, laying already. We decided to leave a few of the queens caged another day or two, based on the behavior of the workers in their Nucs. We cut out developing queens cells in those hives. Then we set out to one of our “out yards” to attend to Spring maintenance. We found one colony that had been alive in March but had failed since then; most likely it starved after using the fondant we had previously left on top. The remaining hives in that yard were thriving, so we reversed brood boxes, placing the queen and brood at the bottom, and added queen excluders and honey supers. Tomorrow we will visit our remaining out yards.
