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05/21/2006 Archived Entry: "Moving On Up"

Okay, I have been busy.
Updates are a little a lacking.
But I have been doing things. Lots of them.
I decided I would try to make a top entrance beehive. I was going to try to make one that would have a slanted roof and allow for air circulation with a screened bottom board. This is south Florida and in the summer it gets hot, damn hot. So I figured I would try to come up with an idea that would also allow to use entrance reducers. I managed to draw up some diagrams here, here, and here.
Then I actually took some pictures.
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=0
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=1
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=2
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=3
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=4

So now it was time to go in and take a look at the hives. Hive 1 was a little slow to accept the permacomb. Note to self the sugar water mix cannot be weeks old and then used to try and con the bees into accepting the permacomb. I ended rubbing some of the honey on the permacomb. That changed everything. They have now accepted the permacomb. They are not as fast as hive 2 but they are making great progress. The permacomb is getting filled with honey. I would like it to get filled with brood. But I am glad that it gets filled with something. I have also noticed that I have one frame that doesn't get filled no matter where I put it. I may have to learn to accept that at least one frame isn't going to get anything on it no matter what. They just not like it. I didn't find the queen but there was lots of brood cells and things looked good there so I am happy.

Hive 2 is busy like central station. As with hive 1 I have one frame in the top honey section they really aren't doing anything with. However all the other frames are full and capped or damn close to it. Which I thought was great. The second layer was the permacomb I installed a while back. Well the permacomb layer went real well. It is 10 frames fill of honey. Someone also lied to me. I went with mediums because I was of the understanding that deeps could be heavy. Well let me tell you I could barely lift the medium filled with honey. I am not a wimp, not Mr. Universe either, but there was way more than 35 pounds there.

Now for the next problem. I could gravity extract the honey, but that would take forever. Also I would need to get some jars and honey bears to put the honey into. I don't have either of those. So next week I am going to order a small hand crank extractor and have my wife spin honey frames until her arm falls off and then have her fill jars and honeybears after her arms have fallen off. The jars and honeybears will be ordered at the same time as the extractor.

Back into hive 2. The queen is doing well and laying lots of brood. I am convinced now that for whatever reason the queen lays worker cells that have a bubble shape definitly in the permacomb. While I still have SHBs the count is down and they are the only sign of pest I have.

Now there is a bit of a followup. The mangrove tree bees absonded they didn't join hive 2. The duckbox bees also absconded. I am learning I have a lot more to do when it comes to trying to capture and keep feral hives. I also learned as soon as the bees leave, the pests move in. I took the remains of the tree stump and chopped into it with the chainsaw. I saw maggots, and small hive beetles swarming in there.
I had done this only about 24 hours after the bees absconded. I thought this was maybe a fluke but it happened again right after they left the duckbox. So I took some photos of the infested comb and and the nastiness that was the affect comb. So when you are looking at all the photos of the infested comb
remember that is stuff that got tossed into the garbage.

http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=44