March 14 2017
Well the winter is finally giving us a bit of a break. The mercury is above 0 now and today the bees were all out flying. It was great seeing all 4 hives made it through the long cold winter. I decided since it was mild this morning when we first got up, it might be a good day to see bees.
So I wandered out around noon. There was evidence of major housecleaning in hive #1. Lots of dead bees on the front porch, so I decided to pop off the entrance reducer and sweep out  the bottom board.
They instantly reminded me why I call them the cranky hive. Then I did the same to hive 2. I was kneeling on the ground and I guess one of the girls crawed up my boot and up my pant let. So my first sting of 2017 happened today.
I felt awful since these girls fought to survive the winter and had to die getting pinched in my pant leg.
Later this afternoon I wandered out several more time to watch them, and on the 3rd trip out, hive 4 (aka the swarm hive) was out flying. Yeah 3 out of 4.
About an hour ago I wandered out once again, this time lots of activity in front of hive 3 (aka the Nuc) So I feel pretty good.
So now to wait until it warms up so I can look inside and check the queens. But that will have to wait a few more weeks I think. As the weather is so unstable right now.
Anyways that's it for now.