Weighing the hive (continued 8) - Expanding the hive

Today (17th of april) I did a check on the hive since yesterday I did my last weighing and the result was odd - or at least not as I expected.

I was expecting the mass of the hive to steadily increase (weight loss to be negative) but to my surprise the hive was loosing weight again.

But when I opened the hive the reason became clear. First of all there was bees everywhere. Last year I counted how many "aisles" were filled with bees (you count the spaces between the plates, and with 10 plates and ends counting as ½ you have max 10 aisles per box). No need to count this year - all aisles were full, very full.

I was quite windy and not so warm, so I just picked a few plates to look at because I did not want to stress the bees too much. Examining the plates it was clear that the bees were breeding. I had larvae and sealed chambers so the queen is definitely still there and she is active. Only the plate furthest from the entrance contained just food. So I removed this plate and introduced a "drone" plate instead. Due to the massive amount of bees I also decided to add a second box with another 10 plates. I did not feel it was a great idea to remove any food, so I substituted one of the new plates with the one I removed from the box on the bottom. I was hoping to see the queen, but due to the massive amounts of bees I did not see her today. Maybe next time.

So why is the hive not gaining weight? Everything that the bees collect is used immediately together with some of the stored food. Even though the result looks like the bees went back into the winter cluster this is certainly not the case. :o)

Now I am just hoping that the bees will soon be able to collect plenty of food. Buds are appearing on all fruit bushes and fruit trees, so a few warm days and the feast can begin.