Recent Posts
And another hive inspection is in the books. I have a couple of questions regarding this inspection. In the deep box, is that building of comb normal? They're not filling out the frames too well.I don't use foundation, but it looked normal to me. Comb building is a lot of work, it may take them some time if your flow isn't strong. You mentioned at the end that you saw bees hanging onto each other. That could be bees festooning, where they make kind of a scaffolding with their bodies as they build comb. I'm assuming bees on foundation still do this behavior.
And should a new colony like this be building practice queen cells? Was I wrong to just leave them there?Some colonies build a lot of queen cups seemingly just to have them in case they need them. I have several colonies that keep cups built for most of the summer, but they are never charged (they don't have an egg or larva in them). I was a little surprised that they had made so many, but until one has an egg or larva in it or is drawn out into a full queen cell, I wouldn't be too concerned about it.
And on a frame or two, for some reason I was unable to determine if it was honey or brood. That would be to the outside in the medium box. I ask about it in the video. It should be easy for me to determine but I wasn't able to.It can be a bit tough if the wax is very light, but to me it looked like that frame had brood in the middle.
I wonder about that. I worked with my mentor in early spring when he was going through his hives and his all built up. So much so that he moved the almost empty bottom boxes to the top. And when I put the deep up top, the queen moved up into it. If I had three or four hives, I could conduct all kinds of experiments.I don't know, myself. My nuc came in medium frames so that's why it's a medium on the bottom. I had quite a consensus that it was time to add the upper box and to keep feeding. The queen has been in the upper box for two weeks now and I'm thinking that when it's time to clean out the medium box, I'll put it on top, above a queen excluder. I'm all ears for input and willing to learn though. Thanks for the input, I like hearing the thoughts on it. Oh, and they were building comb on the bottoms of the frames when it was just the medium box.
You might want to put the medium box on top. They will build themselves down into the deep.
I don't know, myself. My nuc came in medium frames so that's why it's a medium on the bottom. I had quite a consensus that it was time to add the upper box and to keep feeding. The queen has been in the upper box for two weeks now and I'm thinking that when it's time to clean out the medium box, I'll put it on top, above a queen excluder. I'm all ears for input and willing to learn though. Thanks for the input, I like hearing the thoughts on it. Oh, and they were building comb on the bottoms of the frames when it was just the medium box.
Why is it that I they are only burning equipment. AFB is on the bees. Did they move the bees to new hives?
Jim Altmiller
