OTS Queen Rearing gearing up!

With our West MI "winter" in April this year, the bees are behind in brood rearing and drone production. I normally pull my overwintered queens from the hives the last week of April. It is May 8 and I still have not started OTS, On The Spot Queen rearing by Mel Disselkoen. Why? Because I like to see 8 frames of brood in my  hives prior to starting and I like to see drones flying. In most hives I  have neither yet. I could pull the queen early but it is doubtful that the daughter queens would have a successful mating because of the lack of drones. Also, if I only have 4-6 frames of brood, I can't make as many splits as I would like to. With On The Spot Queen Rearing, by Mel Disselkoen, I can  on an average hive get the "artificial swarm" (the overwintered queen and 2 frames of capped brood plus 2 shakes of nurse bees off frames) and 3 additional splits. That is 4 hives from one. I am preparing nuc boxes and getting equipment ready to start pulling my overwintered queens next week. The weather has been good for foraging and lots of pollen has been coming in.

Beautiful frame of pollen, nectar and some capped honey.

The colors of the different pollens are so vibrant and diverse!

Little gymnast collecting pollen from a willow.

Honeybee on willow collecting pollen.

Honeybee on Purple Dead Nettle. I am told this is a source of red pollen for the bees, but I didn't see any red pollen this day. 

Beautiful Spring day finally!! 15/15 made it through the winter in this yard!