What’s the next step from here?

Beekeeping - Basics
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Coming up to one year since installing a nuc and all seems good. The operative word being”seems”, because really, I still have only a basic idea.
Anyhow, since my package was only small and took some time to build up, by the time Winter was approaching there didn’t seem to be much of a store for the colds months so I made up some 2:1 sugar water. 9kgs of sugar and gave them that over 10 days. Seemed to be plenty of honey after that so I closed it down and left it… till today.

There is plenty of activity at the front of the hive so I assumed a strong population and no issues. So today was inspection day. The edge frames had a lot of bees on them and drawn, but no honey.
Moving in I saw next to no honey, plenty of capped brood, and larvae.
Finally, for the first time ever, I spotted the Queen.

Super calm bees, I closed the hive came inside and took off my beesuit, went back out in shorts and singlet right up to the hive and it was like I had not been in there at all.

I didn’t take any photos… I usually do but not today.
I see plenty of pollen going in… daily… And that’s it.

One hive beetle is all I saw. No cups or anything of the sort. Have I missed anything? Honey production likely soon? I’m keen to put the Super on for the first time… hopefully soon.
And… my location is NE Vic.

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Hi Paul, if you’re not seeing any/much honey in the brood box, I’d suggest to feed them. I always like to see a nice arc of honey above the brood, unless of course the frame is 100% brood. If you see brood with empty comb where the honey arc would normally be, definitely feed.

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Thanks Jeff. I guess they must have exhausted the supply I built up for them just prior to winter and the nectar flow is too low at the moment.
One to one for 4 days, would that be sufficient?

Cheers, Paul.

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You’re welcome Paul, I guess that would keep them going for the time being, however you need to monitor what’s happening with the bees and feed when necessary. It goes without saying to also observe what’s in flower that your bees can forage on.

More than one hive is also a good idea, because you can see if one colony is performing better than the other. Alternatively, if you had a neighbor with bees to compare with.

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