When I opened Melissa, I was thrilled to find this pure white capped honey. Isn't that gorgeous? The super wasn't fully capped so I won't harvest it yet, but I was impressed with this new hive. Mellona does have a box of capped honey that I will remove this weekend. Some of it is pretty enough to cut into cut comb honey. The honey below needs a little more time to be fully capped. While the frame in the picture is capped, there were at least four or five that were not fully capped in this super.
I have been giving the bees starter strips of wax in the frames and in each box I put one full sheet of foundation. However, since these are honey supers, I am using thin surplus foundation that I ordered my first year to use in shallow supers. Since this is a medium super, the foundation isn't long enough to fill the frame.
To keep the bees from pushing the foundation sheet (which can't be attached to the bottom because it's too short) out at an angle, I always put a rubber band around the frame to keep the foundation in line. Most of the time after waxing it into the groove, I remove the rubber band before putting the frame into the hive.
I forgot to on this frame. See how the bees indented the comb to accommodate the rubber band!
Finally in inspecting all of my hives today, I only saw one small hive beetle. However, this year for the first time, I have silverfish - yuck. (Whoops! See comment below - it's an earwig.)
Hi Linda,
ReplyDeletethis is maybe a stupid question but why do you use gloves?
I know a lot of beeks here in germany who don't use gloves.
Are your bees aggressive against your hands? :)
Greetings from Germany
Olli
Hi Olli,
ReplyDeleteI rarely get stung, but when I do, I get a large local reaction - so my whole hand and arm will swell really big when I get stung on my finger. I don't want that, so I am now wearing nitrile gloves - these are the kind used in hospitals so you can really feel as if you didn't have gloves on but it's hard for the bees to sting through the glove. I have recently been stung on my fingers twice and have not had the usual large local reaction so maybe I am developing a resistance!
Linda, I think that is an earwig, not a silverfish. They really just like to hide in dark places, so I think he just liked the spot under the cover. I don't remember for sure, but I think that they are vegitarians, so they are not going to want to be in your hive anyway.
ReplyDeleteSheldon
PS I love your blog, I am a new beekeeper and enjoy your informative posts
Well the whole arm is really a large reaction.
ReplyDeleteI know a beek who rub his hands with some drops of clove oil. This keeps the bees away from his hands.
I have to confess that I'm still waiting for my first sting ;)
I have really really calm bees but this can sometimes change.
Greetings
Olli