Working with hard working Bees

Honey Bee Forager

We see them out and about everywhere now,

as well as working at the hive entrance where I try to glean as much information as I can about whats happening inside the hive. This is Tony's hive and he goes inside the hive to see how his bees are doing.

5 Boxes full of bees. He wanted to do a split today so I suited up with him. We went into every box and examined every frame. We were looking for the queen, queen cells, drone cells, eggs, larvae, and examining the laying pattern.
In the middle with bees swarming all around me I realized that my hood was half way unzipped. I very slowly and carefully closed it, but soon after sensed a bee inside with me. I walked away from the hive slowly. When all the bees buzzing around my veil left I knew I was right. There was one mad bee still buzzing because she was trapped. Miraculously I was able to unzip and take off the hood without her stinging me. I felt very Lucky.
There were plenty of drone and queen cells in this hive. Tony chose 3 frames to take out. One with brood and queen cells, one with brood and honey, and one with honey. We put them in a new hive box with a few frames with cells and empty frames.

I fed them later some of last falls honey. They were inside hopefully cozy hopefully having what they need to hatch a new queen and start a new hive. I am not convinced this small split will prevent Tony's bees from swarming, but we shall see.