Beekeeping--a new beek's journey!PIC HEAVY (first week of Oct)

[Denim Deb]

You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din!

I'm going to be following this w/interest. I'd love to have a hive, but won't get one while I live here, and not unless I have the clothing to keep from getting stung! I have no desire to go to the ER. :/

 

[keljonma]

You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din!

I'm going to be following this w/interest. I'd love to have a hive, but won't get one while I live here, and not unless I have the clothing to keep from getting stung! I have no desire to go to the ER. :/

Deb, there really isn't any clothing that will prevent you from being stung.

 

[keljonma]

Hive #2
As you can see from the pictures this hive has WAY less bees in it. They had only spread out to the immediate adjoining frames. We were able to find the queen but the capped cells in this one were very dark brown and appeared to be older. I don't know if they just haven't hatched out and had new bees develop yet or if this queen is just weaker. We'll keep an eye on it and see what happens next week. I am wondering if we had some drifting to the other hive. I don't know, maybe some of you that have bees can take a peek at the pictures and give me your opinion.

Lori, you could take some frames from the stronger hive and exchange them for frames in the weaker hive. That would help the weaker colony. Just make sure your queen from Hive#1 isn't on that frame.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I am trying to tell myself that I can go back out there and fix this - being that I'm not a patient person at all....

but then my eye starts twitching.............

 

[reinbeau]

Lori, if you don't mind, I'm going to make a few observations here.

First off, you don't want to leave out that tenth frame. The nine frames in the honey super is to let them built it out far enough to be able to easily remove the cappings when you're extracting. You don't want to violate bee space in the hive body. They will build bridge comb everywhere trying to close up the gaps. That last picture shows a frame where they are already building out comb to bridge the large gap. I'd put that tenth frame in, myself, but do whatever you think works - I just hate to see you have to fix up a mess that's easily preventable.

For your baggie feeders, have you any shims around? Imarie shims are 3/4" thick 'rims' you can put into place below your inner cover to make enough room for the baggie feeders, and it won't leave a bunch of space for them to build burr comb in. Well worth the expense, or make them up.

That looks like an excellent queen, that brood pattern is awesome! They're off to a strong start!

 

[lorihadams]

Thanks Reinbeau...I was trying to get them all in and I didn't know if I could get them all in cause the four frames from the nuc were really wide where they had been in there so long and had built them out.I don't have a honey super on yet, the super that is on them is empty to accomodate the baggie feeder.

I will see if I can get all that burr comb off the top and bottoms of the frames and add the tenth frame to the first hive body. I am probably gonna go ahead and add the upper deep to Hive #1 this weekend. I definitely have to get the liquid smoke mixed up. I am also gonna get some nitrile gloves to help keep any bees off my hands. That's on my to do list this week.

Do you think if I move over one frame from the stronger hive they will continue to stay with it or will they drift back over to the other hive? That first hive just has sooooo many more bees.

I know I need to get the burr comb off and I tried but that's when I got stung. I got the biggest stuff off. Should I break off the protruding comb that was on some of the older frames?

I'll definitely do more clean up this weekend when I have the liquid smoke mixed up. I would love to go peek at them today but it is just too hot.

What do you think?

 

[reinbeau]

Thanks Reinbeau...I was trying to get them all in and I didn't know if I could get them all in cause the four frames from the nuc were really wide where they had been in there so long and had built them out.I don't have a honey super on yet, the super that is on them is empty to accomodate the baggie feeder.

I will see if I can get all that burr comb off the top and bottoms of the frames and add the tenth frame to the first hive body. I am probably gonna go ahead and add the upper deep to Hive #1 this weekend. I definitely have to get the liquid smoke mixed up. I am also gonna get some nitrile gloves to help keep any bees off my hands. That's on my to do list this week.

I use those Atlas gardening gloves, I think they're nitrile, they work well. Can I ask why you don't use a smoker? I've never heard of this 'liquid smoke' stuff. The real smoke works by both masking the alarm scent and by sending them down into the hive to prepare to leave - they think there's a fire and they want to prepare to abandon ship if they need to. I don't know what spraying them with liquid smoke would do

Do you think if I move over one frame from the stronger hive they will continue to stay with it or will they drift back over to the other hive? That first hive just has sooooo many more bees.

It's a good idea to do just that, many of those bees will be nurse bees who most likely will stay right where you put them for a bit. We've moved brood frames to build up a nearby weaker hive with good success. Just be careful Her Majesty isn't on that frame!

I know I need to get the burr comb off and I tried but that's when I got stung. I got the biggest stuff off. Should I break off the protruding comb that was on some of the older frames?

Yes, carefully. Try not to kill too much brood, but usually they'll fill large voids with drone brood sized cells, it's no loss to kill drone brood.

I'll definitely do more clean up this weekend when I have the liquid smoke mixed up. I would love to go peek at them today but it is just too hot.

What do you think?

I think your instincts are good. If it's too hot out, don't bother them. They're busy trying to regulate temps and they'll probably be pretty testy (kinda like me on a hot day! )

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

what do you consider too hot for working with the bees?

 

[keljonma]

TODAY!


ETA: We are at 92 before the heat index and have 60% humidity here in our neck of the woods.

 

[reinbeau]

Yea, that's too hot - plus the atmosphere is unstable, they really don't like having their roof ripped off if there's a hint of thunderstorms in the area.