Shelly and Family:
Forgive me for NOT officially welcoming you and MANY of our more resent members to the forum - I have been dealing with family health issues and other responcibilities which have kept me from the forum - but you are VERY WELCOMED HERE and thank you for the fine posts you have already made and please keep as involved with the forum - the membership surely has grown and the content is wonderful.
I did some hive inspection today myself and although I'm no where near harvesting (probably won't this first season) all three hives (2 from packaged bees and one from a swarm that moved into an old hive body I had stored in a shed) are all doing great and I think they will be fine this year into next.
Great to see you took JUST ENOUGH to feel fair with the bees, giving them plenty to work with - some folks do a great injustice and over-harvest thinking that the bees can MAKE DO when the Winter comes with minimally suggested stores, meanwhile a massive cold front or prolonged season can easily use up what few stores they would have left during an "Average" Winter - if indeed there is such a thing.
So welcome aboard Shelly and Family - I sure hope you find the forum a fun, entertaining and educational place to visit. At the bottom of this post I have sever other of my pages listed that may interest you - I'm trying to find time to write the Lancaster, PA RV Trip to add to my
www.beemaster.com/bus.html page - but time is surely been a tough thing around here laterly to find.
Best wishes and I'm very glad you joined our forums :)