Actual Stuff About My Bees!

So, yesterday's post was probably not particularly exciting if you wanted to hear about what the bees are doing.  But it does provide an insight into one thing I've discovered about beekeeping - quite a lot of it is done without going anywhere near the bees.  In my first year, I had to build the two hives - I actually spent far more time doing carpentry than looking at bees.  Unfortunately, I am a lousy carpenter, and lost could of the number of times I whacked a finger instead of a nail.  It did teach me one useful lesson, however - being stung by a bee is actually less painful than bashing your finger with a hammer.  Useful beekeeping fact...

OK - on with the hives - this was on Sunday, after rain (and rugby) stopped play on Saturday.  I checked Florence's hive first.  They were busy, and there seemed to be plenty of brood, but still on only 4 frames.  At this time of year, I should be doing their annual comb change - which means taking out all the frames of old comb, and replacing them with 11 new frames.  These each come with a flat sheet of wax, imprinted with the familiar hexagonal pattern of honeycomb, which the bees will then build out until it is comb across the whole frame.

Unfortunately, a full comb change means losing all the brood, and I don't think either hive has enough bees to cope with the loss.  So, I'm going to do it incrementally.  With Florence's hive, I locate 4 frames with no brood and the least amount of honey stored in them.  I take these out, and replace them with 4 fresh frames.  Hopefully the bees will spend the next week or so building fresh comb on the new frames, and Florence will then begin laying in them.  Once she's started laying in the new comb, I can safely swap out the rest of the frames.

Florence's bees started getting a bit feisty towards the end, so I closed up her hive and opened Miriam's.  There are only 4 frames of brood in Miriam's hive, but the colony seems a bit larger.  I think I can get away with swapping 5 frames in her hive, so I take out 5 old broodless frames, and put the new replacements in.  Miriam's colony is more friendly than Florence's - no sign of bad behaviour at all.  It's a nice end to the session as I pop the roof back on.

It's a really warm sunny day, and there is plenty of blossom about - also, the Horse Chestnut trees have started flowering.  There's lots of nectar and pollen to be had, so I hope my bees keep busy and make the most of it!