Thursday, May 17, 2012

Another hive inspection



Yesterday before work, I did a quick inspection of the hive.  (who am I kidding, it wasn't quick, but at least I didn't kill hundreds of bees)
I try to go into the hive early, at around nine.  I am getting more comfortable with the whole thing but still have a smidgen of adrenaline while inspecting.  I took my time, use my new beehive tool (the best piece of equipment I could have bought).  I spent 25.00 on one initially and it is too wide to fit between the spacer of the top bar and the edge is not sharp enough to cut through the comb attachments. (The tool I love is the backyard hive tool  at http://www.backyardhive.com/General/General/BackYardHive_Beekeeping_Shop/)

I had a plan when I started, I was going to just harvest the last bar, but when I went in, I realized the last bar was a bar from up front that we had repositioned 2 weeks ago when I went in with my husband and we tried to straighten out all the crooked comb.  I don't like disrupting the bees, I don't use smoke and I firmly believe that my bees did so well last year because of my hands off approach.  That said, I do need to keep the bars straight at least.  They are better, but still crooked.  I have not gotten to the crux of the problem, the 2 bars next to the brood comb, so that is my goal by end of summer.


I saw brood, so I think I have a healthy queen, I harvested a small bit of comb that was very new with uncapped honey only because it seemed all the rest had brood mixed in at the bottom
 of the comb.  Corwin, the bee guru from Backyard Hives says if the brood is all down low on the combs, it can be a sign of the hive being hot so they are keeping brood down low, 

 



One of the bars close to then back (a bar which we moved 2 weeks ago) appeared to be old brood comb now with uncapped honey




Those are not larvae above, just the reflection form the camera flash!

 
 I am not sure I did the correct thing, but I want to make more room for brood, they seem pretty crowed and I found more queen cells.  I am hoping they don't swarm again, and by making room near (unfortunately I have not gotten next to) the brood comb they will hang around longer.
 

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