Bumblin’ Bee – Page 4 – Walberg Heights Apiary Tales

Still Adding Honey Supers

I added another honey super today. That makes six 8-frame and two 10-frame supers. Even though we are trying to make the transition from 10-frame to 8-frame equipment, I added another nine frames to the 10-frame Carny hive today. Even after the 3rd year, we’re still not stocked up on all the hardware we need. I guess I need to get better at unplanned expansions, and math, and staying on top of things. The wet spring has been challenging and a new learning curve.

Open frame view of the apiary from the deck. You can’t see them, but there are lots of girls flying over your head to the north.

We are out of frames with drawn comb, so I checkerboarded new foundation and open frames again. The photo above shows how I have finally settled on setting up the open frames. I add a small starter strip of foundation that I have cut down from a full sheet. Then I add wire for stability. I try to put the open frames into the hive next to a honey frame that is already drawn out to help guide the girls when they draw new comb. Time will tell.

Honey Flow Is On

The bees are starting to store up honey. I added three more supers today. We now have a total of seven. Today inspections results …

Carny – Super is filling up and will need another one soon. I didn’t get into the brood box.

Middle – Super is nearly full but I didn’t add another one yet. This swarm hive with the virgin queen is still establishing itself and is not very populated. One frame had some larva and spotty drone brood. The other side of the frame had larva in a much better pattern. By next week we should we able to tell if it is worker brood or just more drones. I’m hoping the virgin queen just got off to a slow start.

Changing Weather, Changing Plans

The rainy weather forecasted for the week has mostly been at night, with partly cloudy and sunny days. I know I said previously that I wouldn’t be touching the hives for a couple of weeks but plans do change. I initially went out just to heft the Roman honey super to get a feel for how it was filling up. To my amazment there were hundreds of dead bees in front of the hive and they were stinking.