First opening of the Bees

I took the first proper look the bees last weekend. One box has always been stronger than the other. I decided to tackle the weaker box. The bees were feeding on the candy. The bees looked fat and healthy. I popped the crown board off and looked in. There was an earthy smell mixed with the normal warm wax and honey smell. I checked the super frames and found then fairly full and capped. That is not that a good a sign . Having removed the super and queen excluder I pulled out a couple of the brood frames from the upper of the two brood chambers. There was no new eggs or brood just dead bees, head down in the cells. A sign of starvation. I puffed a little smoke over the frames to clear the bees and removed the upper chamber. The lower chamber contained new brood and I saw the queen which was a relief. I removed the brood box to expose the floor. I cleaned the dead bees and detritus off the floor. The bottom brood box was restored to its position. I then took out the a couple of old frames replacing them with part drawn frames from my stores. I cleaned up the queen excluder and placed on the brood box then put a super back on, crown board next and the eke to space the roof above the candy. The verdict...a close run thing.

The stronger hive got the same treatment. As the stronger hive it is in better condition but again it was a close run thing. This hive has more brood, more new bees, more new honey and pollen. In rebuilding the hive I brought it back to a single brood chamber in the hope the colony will spread across the frames before moving upwards. Only the summer tell what happens.

The previous weekend I had a little time available and spent it in the back garden with all the hive spares and supers. I checked out the floors and doors were in good order. Then set the roofs aside. One needs a spacer fitting. I had some timber of the right dimensions. I cut it to size and nailed in position. So that is the top, middle and bottom of two hives. I reserved two crown boards. Next I went through the suppers making up full sets. I damaged a number of super when extracting the honey last season. I had to dismantle the damaged frames, removed the wax and clean the slots in the side bars. Not a hard job just time consuming. I had to refurbish 30+ frames. When I finished I had ten complete supers. I had to refurbish a number brood frames and makes up two brood chambers. I also had six frames in each of the two of the nucleus boxes. I made up spares into two hives.

I took the spare hives, with just one super each, up to apiary. The screwed the alighting boards to the stilage then placed the hives upon the alighting board. I grass the weeks were shooting up round the stilages so I took the billhook to them. With a few minutes the area was clear and completed the preparation of the apiary for the new season. I took a few minutes watch the bees. They had settled down quickly and going about their business. A few bees were buzzing about hive checking out the site, others bring in pollen and honey, no doubt.