It warmed up today so I took a chance and set out to open some hives.  I
know I cannot do anything to help them but as I made a lot of changes in my
winter preparations I am more anxious than normal.  I undertook this
inspection knowing that if I did not find good colonies I would be depressed
for months before I could really get into them.
 
My plan was to sample a few and extrapolate to my entire operation so I set
out to open a carefully constructed sample.
 
First, I made a list of all of the yards that were within reasonable driving
distance and within a reasonable walk from the road.  The snow is 3 feet
deep so this was important.  After the list was made I chose that location.
 
Next I wanted to select hives at random so I waded through the snow to the
first pallet and selected it.
 
I was pleased with all 4 colonies on the pallet - nice sound, nice smell,
and lots of bees and feed.  More important - they were all alive.
 
I rushed back to my computer and prepared a spread sheet to calculate the
number of colonies I can expect to be alive in my entire outfit.  After a
little work I came up with the figure - 1198 out of 1200.  It would have
been 1200 but I remember culling 2 at the last minute last fall.
 
So far it looks like a good start and there are only 105 days until fresh
pollen is available.
 
Eric
 
Eric Abell
Gibbons, Alberta Canada
(403) 998 3143
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