Saturday was supposed to be catch up at the lottie day and empty the Greenhouse. I woke up to a grey day and a strong chance of rain. The rain came on whilst I had breakfast. No lottie today. Again it was showers but prolonged ones. I decide that I should build the flight boards for the new hives. It 's a job that needs doing but to do it I had to clear the shed out then tidy it up. Whilst I was at it I did an inventory of the wine stock. A bit thin. I will have to do something about that. With the shed tidied up I had a bit of room to work. I got the necessary tools from the garage and set up the work bench outside.
The flight boards sit under the floor of the hive and protrudes in front of the entrance to the hive. They are called flight boards but they are more like crash landing boards. When the bees come back from foraging they can be heavy with nectar and pollen and/or be tired, they can also be a bit cold in both cases their flight control can be a bit off. The flight board gives them a place to alight or crash land, as the case maybe, and walk into the the hive entrance. Some beekeepers have large entrances to their hive so there is a bigger gap for the bees to go for. A small entrance is easier for the bees to defence against their arch enemy, Wasps. My hives were badly attacked by wasps until I closed the entrance down. I put down the loss of one hive to raiding by wasps. They robbed the honey stores and weakened the colony by killing many Bees outright but also [in my opinion] the by diversion of energy from being a hive and doing Bee like things to one of constant defence. The entrance is now one Bee high [10mm - 3/8"] and 50mm [2"] long instead of 15x450mm [1/2x18"].
Since I started keeping Bees again Vorroa has become an issue. My hives are free of the pest I am glad to say but a tactic to combat the mite is to have hive floors made out of mesh. The mites piggyback the bees but do get brushed off against other Bees in the colony as a natural occurrence. The mesh keeps the undesirables out but lets the mites fall thought onto the ground outside the hive. My hives are 18" off the ground so that is a long walk back when you are only 2mm long. Hives need ventilation which used to mean a big entrance because the floor were solid. I have decided that the mesh floor is adequate ventilation so a small entrance can be used. The hive with small entrance kept the wasps out, The mesh floor gave good ventilation throughout the summer. I even left the mesh floor open throughout the winter. The colony came through the winter unscathed. I have a theory that I might explain at another time. But back to the flight board.
When finished the flight board is about 4" deep and the width of the hive. I have mine sloping away from the entrance, partly to throw the rain away from the hive but also bees, like sheep, prefer to walk up hill to the entrance. For the flight board you need; two side pieces, a back piece to join the ends of the side pieces and a board to join the side pieces at the front. You cut the side pieces long enough to give you an over hang at the front then make a bird bill cut to give you a slope. I used 2x1" PAR for the side and back piece and a 18x4" piece of marine ply for the flight board. Glue and nail the the four pieces together and set a side for the glue to dry. I had three to make. I cut all the bit to size first then assemble them in one go. Whilst the glue dried I had a brew. Brew done, glue dry and it had stopped raining I got the waterproof paint out and slopped on a few coats to give the timber a bit a weather protection. My trousers are waterproof too. I was a bit liberal with the paint! I set the flight boards aside to dry in the shed.
One of the hive roofs I bought came without the rim that spaces the roof off the top of the crown board. I bought a piece of 3/4x 1/2" edging from Wickes, cut to size and fixed it in position with glue and nails. I was a bit more careful with the paint this time which gave it a nice-ish finish.
Now I am completely ready for the season. I have four complete hives each with three supers. One hive is occupied and my Nuc of bees arrives in two weeks time for which a hive will be required. That leaves me with two spare hives. I suspect they too will be occupied by the end of the season but that's another story.
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