2013-07-20: Preparing the Heist

Satellite yard

Both hives were bearding, especially Goldenrod.

Goldenrod:  Top two supers full of honey and capped, and the third is a work in progress.

        

Drone frame cells empty.  Removed a frame of mostly full frame of honey from the side of the top brood box and swapped in a frame of bare foundation in order to (you guessed it) try to keep the hive from getting honey bound.  Technically, drawn foundation would be better, but as a nectar flow appears to be ongoing I thought that they would be able to draw it out quickly enough.

   

I decided to prepare to remove two of the supers since they were full and I didn’t want to shift two 35 lb boxes each time I wanted to check on the hive.  Also, I wanted to ‘lock in’ what might be the majority of the honey harvest for the year so that a bear visit or a robbing incident etc.. wont cause it to be lost.  So I brought my escape board (it has a one way exit on it so the bees can re-enter the supers) to the yard and placed it under the two filled supers.  I also gave a few sprays of Bee-Away to the top inner cover to help goad the bees out.  And this time I did remember to block all the holes in the supers and the top inner cover so that the bees can’t get back in.

    

Hodgepodge: I moved the super out of the middle and put it on top since the bees had started to draw it out and honey was being put into it.  I noted many old swarm cells.  Added a medium super of foundation frames as well to make sure that the bees don’t get honey bound.

   

Home yard

Aubergine:  Looks like the bees are adding to the super again in a small way.  I dusted with powdered sugar to try to knock of mites.

Sage:  Same as Aubergine.

Holly: Cut out the drones from the drone frame.  I noticed the queen on the drone frame and tried to gently scoot her onto other frames.  I really hope I didn’t squish her as I slid the drone frame back in.  Also swapped one frame of honey for one of foundation, again to make sure the hive does not become honey bound.

Blue:  Surprisingly strong.  Not seeing any brood yet, even in the upper box where the queen had first been kept while part of the Swarm hive I did remove the queen excluder that had been separating the boxes.  Frames in bottom are being drawn out so hopefully there will be space there as well.  Storage box, to keep random frames is on top of the hive over an inner cover.

Realized that the Green nuc was being robbed out.  Even saw one bee apparently abducting a pupae.  That bee headed directly across the pasture to the East so I wonder if one of my swarms ended up out that way.  I closed the gate (the previous owner had made them and they are pretty awesome) and decided to deal with it next week.  Afterwards I noticed the swarm of bees wanting to get in (and continue their plundering no doubt.

I looked into Yellow.  The drone frame was being filled out with honey.  Had a fair bit of honey and also found old swarm cells, no surprise.  The hive seemed rather more aggressive than I normally expect from my gals.