Yesterday we did our first inspection of the year of our two beehives. We weren’t sure about one of the hives, but both survived the winter. Now that the weather is getting warmer, and flowers are starting to bloom, the bees are active again, replenishing their stores, and the queens are busy laying brood to ramp up the populations.

While we were at it, we took the opportunity to install a couple of BroodMinder temperature sensors in each hive. These record the internal temperature, which can indicate the health and state of the hive. The sensors sync via Bluetooth to an app on Jenn’s iPhone.

Here’s the yellow hive with two sensor tags sticking out:

Jenn doing a quick inspection of the Flow hive:

A beehive frame, showing some stored honey on the right, some capped brood in the middle, and good activity:

Some bees around the entrance, including some with full pollen baskets: