Hello all I thought I would comment on the current state of my bees. Given the mild winter and all. My brother Robert and I checked out one apiary Sunday which consists of three colonies that were nucs last July, which we got from The Bee Works. We hadn't looked at them for some time, and were happy to see three quite populous colonies. When we tipped up the top brood box and looked at the lower one, there was a cluster of bees that covered about 75% of the area. I think this is larger than should be at this time of year? Obviously the queens have been laying for some time. Two colonies had top boxes full of honey and the other was given feed with Terr. and Fumidil. Also, Mineral Oil was applied to the top bars of all boxes with a syringe. Today we went to another apiary with not-so-good conditions. One colony of Robert's nucs was very very low on stores and bees and one was dead....probably from Tracheal Mites, since there were hardly any dead bees present. Two of mine were dead, which is strange since a few weeks ago all were quite active. One dead colony was an Italian swarm from 1996 which didn't perform very well last year and probably died of mites, and the other was a Buckfast which produced 205 lbs of honey in 1997, and seems to have died from Foul Brood, although I treated with Terr. both in sugar syrup and powder on the top bars. Two swarm-colonies at this yard are full of very grumpy bees and seem quite healthy and have ample stores, as is evident by my now sore back...;) Mineral Oil was again applied. So...I thought I would comment on our state of things so far and am wondering how others are doing. Ian Watson [log in to unmask] real estate agent gardener baritone beekeeper---> 8 colonies and counting Southern Ontario between Lakes Erie and Ontario