You do not need to open a hive to know things are going well. Sometimes you just watch the landing board.

Those bright yellow pollen baskets mean the foragers have found something worth working for — and more importantly, that the queen is laying and the colony has young brood to feed.

Pollen coming in is one of the clearest signs of a healthy, motivated colony. They are not hauling it in for storage — they need it now, for the brood being raised inside. Seeing this kind of traffic this early in the season is exactly what you want.

Some days the best thing a beekeeper can do is stand back and watch. Today was one of those days.