Are you ready for spring buildup?

So pretty much true to form, Valentines day is kicking off the bee buildup here in Central FL. Now in all of my hives I'm seeing some drone cells, population has increased and in the past week more nectar is coming in. I don't know what it is but in the past week the bees in my backyard hive have drawn out three whole frames without foundation. So what does all of this mean? Primarily it means that I need to have a number of boxes and frames ready right now. And I need a game plan for long and short term. For every colony that over wintered (Florida winter LOL), I can probably make a split. The question is, do I want to, or do I want to give away some bees? I'd suggest considering how many beehives you want to have at the end of this season, and you should have all of that equipment right now. In addition, for every three colonies, you should have another complete set. Yes one can end up with a lot of stuff pretty quickly. As the build up has certainly started, and will continue or the next month at least, it's more important to do regular checks. It will only take 12 days for the bees to throw a swarm, you can be in the box and see no signs of queen cells or cups then 12 days later half the bees are gone and they left behind a brand new virgin queen. That's why a 10 day cycle is suggested. And I'd recommend checking every frame for at least the next month. So now what do you do if you check and there's a capped queen cell? Or several? You can take the frame with QC's and start a colony, that's pretty common. Some may choose to cut off the cells and try to prevent swarming but that typically doesn't work. And if you miss 1 cell they're gone. Personally I have a plan for this year, it's been done by others before so I think the potential for success is there. I'm running all 1 size box and frames so my logistics are a bit easier than some. I am keeping three boxes with frames in my truck now, just in case. About half of the frames have some comb, the rest are starter strips. When the situation arises and I spot queen cells, capped or uncapped this is my plan. Move the beehive, either across the yard if possible or just move it over 2 feet and spin it around 180 degrees. Put a new box and bottom board in the old location. Take the frame or frames with the cells and put in the new box. Locate the queen and be certain that she stays in the old box. Move all but 1 or 2 brood frames to the new box, and two frames of food. In the old brood box I want 1 or 2 frames of brood, 2 frames of drawn comb, 2 frames of food, and two frames with starter strips. In the super, whatever stores were left after the split and fill the spaces with starter frames. By doing this I create a virtual swarm, the queen and whatever bees are in the box have moved. Some may migrate back but the nurse bees on the brood combs won't, the queen will continue to lay, and the young workers will stay. In the new split, there is emerging brood with nurse bees as an anchor. And any foragers will return to the old location. I can monitor things, again every 10 days and should something go wrong, I only need to turn the old box back around and re-stack the whole thing into 1 colony again. That's my plan for now, but as a colonel I knew in the service used to say, the plan is only good until the first shot is fired. Along the lines of spring buildup, we are seeing some swarms and I expect to get regular calls for the next several weeks. Be ready, have some sort of box, a nuc at least for that chance to go nab a swarm. Everyone should have at least 1 empty nuc just in case. And of course, as always we're here to help if you have questions or problems.