Cold and snowy/rainy spring is keeping me out of the hives, still lots to do getting ready for the Warre’ hives.
4/10/2010 Started processing wax at mid day and it took until midnight to empty the 5 gallon bucket of last year’s wax.
4/11/2010 10 am, Father son team of new beekeepers come over to put bees wax in the top bar groove for their top bar hive. A Warre’ top bar hive as we have them configured is 4 square super each with 8 bars for the bees to draw frames of comb. The idea is that the bees will use that groove of wax as the anchor for the comb they will suspend from that top bar. We used some of the wax from my work yesterday and i sent them home with a big chunk of wax to be melted and applied to their Warre’ hive with 8 frames of foundation in each square super. Father and son figured out how to do it as a team i just stood back and grinned.
After father and son went home i started brood box reversal of Hive #2. Observed frames of brood both capped and uncapped split vertically in two medium supers. Some partial frames with capped honey remain, 5 frames 30% capped honey, empty comb ready for brood. Broke hive down, cleaned out all the stuff (wax from capped honey after they opened it, bee parts, gunk and snarf), nothing remarkable, this hive seems strong for early April. Installed new deep with all new wax foundation, rotating out the 4 year old deep and all its old nasty dark frames. Got hurried toward the end as wind was picking up so will need to come back and check those new frames spacing. Now configured:
feeder box
deep (replacing the old deep which had been on bottom)
medium (was top all winter)
medium (was #2 all winter, these two have the brood nest)
4/12/2010 - spend every spare minute all day filling my top bars with melted bees wax. Used the method discovered by father/son team, 70% completed at end of day.
4/14/2010 - finish remaining top bar wax melts
On nice days i check and fill the feeders that are now on top all the Langstroth hives (H1, H2, H3), number based on year of initial install in that equipment. H1 looks weak, darker bees, more dead bees on ground outside entrance.
Make sugar syrup, fill feeder pails for Warre’ hives (W1, W2, W3). Assemble empty hives in new apiary, secure equipment using strong cordage to tie it onto the salvaged wood pallets. Locating the open bottom screen over the blank area of the pallet so those nasty parasites (varroa mites) can just fall right on out of the hive when the bees do the hygienic behavior thing.
Move some of the stored bee equipment onto empty pallets in the back of the new apiary even though the fence is not yet complete. The garage is getting too full of bee stuff its gotta find a new home. Use telescoping top covers, turned down (so they don’t capture and hold water), place empty Langstroth supers with previously drawn comb on those covers then cover them with covers, no entrance for bees that way. Later this equipment will be put on the Ls for honey production.
4/24/2010 - remove feeders from all the Ls
4/25/2010 - 10 am, father and son join me in town for the 20 minute drive to pick up our new bee packages, two for them, three for me. Purchase 5 pollen patties at pickup point, one for each hive. Back to our meetup and they are off in their car and me in mine to go directly home and install them.
work fence as weather allows, now there are 6 beehives, ooooooh boy, here we go ready or not, now you’re a sideliner.
4/27/2010 - Tuesday, 11 am - 1 pm
Inspected and released queen in all three Ws. All Ws have bees hanging in cluster just above where the queen cage was resting on the top of the top bars in the super below. Everybody looks Ok, all feeders still have plenty of syrup.
Inspect Hs, all new deep frames have no new comb or even much activity, all hives have foragers returning with pollen, H1 has fewer.
cool weather with lots of snow continues to limit both my activity and the bees.
