It was 53°f today, after many weeks of cold and snow, so I took several dozen strolls around the yard to look at my bees. All but a late swarm that starved were flying and bringing in a small amount of pollen. I think we are in the home stretch for spring, but I expect a few weak colonies won’t make it. If I were to put syrup on them now, they would definitely get robbed. I’m not worried though. I still have their sisters’ and mothers’ colonies to split and repopulate the equipment if they don’t pull through. Below is a video of some of my colonies, including the spool colony, now in its third year, left completely alone.
Berks County PA Honey Bee Removal 19601 
Wow I love your spool colony! That’s really cool. I think feral colonies which we have in our collections are so valuable to watch. The feral colony I’ve got in a hive (its combs are just a jumble in the bottom box) is by far the strongest colony I have.
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The spool is my favorite one (I think). It cracks me up when people ask, “How are you going to get them out of there?” or “How do you harvest the honey from that?” They just can’t wrap their minds around leaving a colony alone. It’s funny and sad. 😁
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Yes – and if they do really well and thrive that’ll just be ‘luck’ 😉
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