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.
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.
Hi, Linda.
ReplyDeleteHere's an easier way to mark frame positions: run a pencil line diagonally across the tops (a technique used by my old mentor).
Penny
Great plan - I'll try that - then you not only know where the front is but also the order!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good tip that I will use as well, thanks.
ReplyDelete