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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Sunday, May 01, 2011

Bees on the Home Front are Bursting at the Seams

Colony Square is growing and growing as is Lenox Pointe. I checked on Saturday and knew I needed to add a new box to both hives really soon, but was going to be gone all day. When I got home from South Georgia, I headed out to add a box.

My friend Julia who is my beekeeping buddy at Blue Heron showed me to take the hive tool and drag a line across all the frames toward the ends so that you'll not have to remember the orientation when you put the frame back in the box. If you click on the picture below, you can see the hive tool mark I've made.

The boxes I added were a combo of old crush and strain frames and some new frames.



The bees have made fat honey comb in this box and it is bulging at the sides - yum, yum.



Lenox Points has many bees as well. These Jennifer Berry bees are darker and larger than my other hives, but maybe they'll changes as the generations emerge.


















I checkerboarded these boxes so that there is a combo of the new and old box on Lenox. Every other frame in the honey section is an empty one in the top two boxes. I didn't checkerboard in Colony Square because I didn't have my smoker lit and the bees were none too happy with my 5:30 PM intrusion.



Here are the newly taller boxes. The stick on markings on the front are designed hopefully to cut down on drift. The bees will have a way to distinguish their hive from the one beside it.


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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:58 AM

    Hi, Linda.
    Here's an easier way to mark frame positions: run a pencil line diagonally across the tops (a technique used by my old mentor).
    Penny

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great plan - I'll try that - then you not only know where the front is but also the order!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's a good tip that I will use as well, thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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