The Slatted Rack and the Empty Bottom Box in Early Spring

Every spring in most of my colonies, the bees have moved up in the hive and when I open the hive for the first time, there is nothing going on in the bottom box.

I keep a slatted rack on all of my colonies and this serves at least two purposes. I say "at least" because I'm sure there are other ideas than mine on what the slatted rack does. As you can see in the photo above, the slatted rack is simply a box about 2 inches deep fitted with slats that parallel the frames in the hive boxes. If the slats parallel the frames, and if you are using a screened bottom board, varroa mites fall through the cracks and through the SBB. If the slats run 90 degrees, then the varroa mite might bounce on a slat and not fall through the SBB.

Note: the photo above is an adapted slatted rack in that the slatted rack is for a 10 frame hive and my boxes are eight frame, so I have put a board above the unused two slats and put an eight frame box above that, but ideally the slatted rack is the same size as the hive. I just hated not to use the available 10 frame and that's the only photo I could find this morning!

First the slatted rack gives the bees somewhere to hang out in the hot summer. In the heat of Atlanta summers, the slatted rack cuts down on hive bearding. The slatted rack helps keep the brood from being chilled. And secondly, because the slatted rack provides a layer between the hive entrance and the bottom box, the cold air coming in through the entrance doesn't immediately chill the brood. As a result in the brood frames, the queen often builds brood from end bar to end bar instead of the usual football shaped pattern.

In the spring in Atlanta, the nights can be pretty cool. This spring we had a particularly cool-night laden spring, with night temps often in the 40s. In my survivor hives, over the winter the bees move up in the boxes. Partly this is to orient the cluster to the food sources so they can live.

However, in every hive when I open it for spring for the first time, there is no brood in the bottom box. There are some exceptions. My nuc hive was only building brood in the bottom box but it was not on a screened bottom board and was in a solid nuc box. In the other hives the bees were up at least two boxes and the queen was building her early brood there.

While my first thought was to remove the empty box to give me the convenience of being able to clean out the old wax, I re-thought it and left the empty box on at the bottom. After all, with no bees in it and these cool nights, the empty box and the slatted rack together should give the bees more protection from the air and allow the brood to thrive.

When I consolidate the box for winter, I will remove the box and clean out the wax in the frames, but for now, I will let it act with the slatted rack as an insulator. Now that we are deep into the nectar flow, I only check my hives for the need for a new box, so I have no need to go all the way down to the bottom box. We'll see what leaving the empty bottom box on this bee season does for my hives.

Flying Bees HOORAY

We've had a bad end to winter - I hate to say that when Boston is ten feet deep in snow - but in Atlanta we had below freezing temps for the last week of February and that is bad for the bees.  I was sure my bees had failed to make it through that last week, so I crossed my fingers.  Then last week on Saturday when the temperature got up to 44 degrees after lunch, the bees were flying like crazy from my overwintered nuc.

The bees in my other overwintered survivor never stuck their heads out, so I got worried.  Then on Sunday, I watched the temperature and when it got up to 44, those nuc Polar Bees decided to fly some more, but not the tall swarm hive in my beeyard.  The temperature kept climbing and since bees typically (unlike the Polar Bees) fly at around 50 degrees, at 49 degrees I looked out and still only the Polar Bees were flying.

At that moment, not wanting to start the season with only a nuc hive, I ordered two packages of bees from Jarrett Apiaries.  I can get them on March 21 and can have an OK beginning to the season.  So feeling better and less like a failure, I went for a walk with Hannah, my dog.

As we walked it got warmer and warmer and when I got home it was 52 degrees......and, you guessed it, the tall hive was also flying in and out like mad women.

Then on Monday we had a typically warm spring day (Atlanta has a strange up and down climate coming out of winter) with temperatures close to 70.

I ate lunch with my friend Julia to start planning the fall GBA meeting.  We meet near Tom's house where I have one of the Bill Owens hives so after lunch, basking in the warmth, I went over to look at his beehive.  Sure enough, the bees were tripping all over each other as they zoomed in and out of the hive.

I called Stonehurst and they reported that their hive was flying.  I then went home and both of my hives at home were zooming in and out.  It was a great bee day.  I now need to find out about the mountain hives.

This hive clearly had a diarrhea problem but there are thousands of bees in this hive.  So some of them obviously survived.  I did not harvest from this hive and did not feed it.

And the Polar Bees were also flying happily and gathering bright yellow pollen as well.

I moved these Polar Bees into a full sized box and will post about the move next!

The Bees Are Flying!

Today despite low 30s night time temps, it's up to 65 now at 2:30  And Hallelujah the bees are flying.  So around this area, I have two lively hives in my backyard.  One hive at Morningside garden is full of bees:

I had a break and ran over to the Stonehurst Place Inn to see how our bees were doing there.  Both of the hives that went into winter were flying.  There are less bees in the far hive than in the close hive but both were flying!

The small one box hive closest to the photographer is what remains of the huge hive that was robbed out and died.  I left the one box as a swarm lure for swarms in the spring.  Maybe it will happen.

I am so relieved to see all these bees.  I know there are two living hives and perhaps three at my old house.  I haven't checked in with Sebastian to see if the bees are flying at his house and I won't know about my Rabun County bees for a while.  Right now I have at least 8 hives as spring is slowly getting here.

Whew.......