Post by lew92 on Jul 17, 2012 16:14:48 GMT -5
On Sunday, July 15th, I finally had everything ready to complete the hive split. I took the new boxes and frames, new bottom and top boards, etc. to the “bee yard”, dropped them off then went back to the house to change into my bee suit and get the smoker going. It was early in the morning, about 8am, but it was already over 70 degrees and the humidity was high, so I wanted to get it done as soon as possible.
The new hive is quite active and I was pleased to see so many bees hard at work. There is still some capped brood and I got to see a couple of drones hatch out. The girls got a bit worried about all of the activity, but I got everything put back together as quickly as possible and they settled right down.
I went ahead and put a second box of empty frames on the hive, because the first box had seven filled frames of brood and honey. When the queen hatches I want her to have plenty of space for egg laying. I put an entrance reducer in so the bees don’t have as much space to defend, but left the two ventilation holes in the front of the bee boxes open. I put screening on the top box and set the inner cover on top of the screening, then propped the outer cover up a bit to provide more ventilation. The weather is just so darned hot, I don’t want the poor girls to melt.
The second hive is also very active and is plumb full of bees going about their work. Box #3 is mostly full of comb with honey, though not finished off enough to be capped yet. I put a box full of empty frames on, in position #3 and the “old” #3 box is on top of that, to give the queen plenty of egg laying space. I took four frames of honey out of the bottom two boxes and don’t think the girls will miss it.
I didn’t see a queen in either hive, but that wasn’t a surprise. Hopefully next weekend when I go in I will be able to see some eggs have been laid.
Getting organized and ready:
One of the frames of honey I stole:
The split completed:
The new hive is quite active and I was pleased to see so many bees hard at work. There is still some capped brood and I got to see a couple of drones hatch out. The girls got a bit worried about all of the activity, but I got everything put back together as quickly as possible and they settled right down.
I went ahead and put a second box of empty frames on the hive, because the first box had seven filled frames of brood and honey. When the queen hatches I want her to have plenty of space for egg laying. I put an entrance reducer in so the bees don’t have as much space to defend, but left the two ventilation holes in the front of the bee boxes open. I put screening on the top box and set the inner cover on top of the screening, then propped the outer cover up a bit to provide more ventilation. The weather is just so darned hot, I don’t want the poor girls to melt.
The second hive is also very active and is plumb full of bees going about their work. Box #3 is mostly full of comb with honey, though not finished off enough to be capped yet. I put a box full of empty frames on, in position #3 and the “old” #3 box is on top of that, to give the queen plenty of egg laying space. I took four frames of honey out of the bottom two boxes and don’t think the girls will miss it.
I didn’t see a queen in either hive, but that wasn’t a surprise. Hopefully next weekend when I go in I will be able to see some eggs have been laid.
Getting organized and ready:
One of the frames of honey I stole:
The split completed:
