Andrew Siwko’s Blog #2

Jay came over and we looked at the hive and talked for a while about bees.  The video is 14 minutes which I know is way too long for you to watch, so I sped it up to 4X.  You get a full inspection in only three and a half minutes.  Enjoy!

Today I took the two funny shaped combs and moved them to the back of the hive with some space around them.  My hope is that the brood will hatch and the bees will clean out this comb and replace it with straighter comb.

I’ve noticed that the comb curves off the guide at one end of the bar.  You can see a corner of unsupported comb falling off in the video.  I put it on top of the hive then brought it in and put it on a plate.  John said it tasted very nice.  What I’m wondering is whether I made my triangle guides too short.

I also noticed that the bees are resisting the guides and building farther out.  Maybe they’ve finished with brood and want to move to honey spacing?  I’ve also noticed that they started two combs on the bar at the back (the first one you see in the video).  Maybe I need to paint the triangles with wax.  It seemed to work for the center bars.

I still need to number the bars for reference.  I saw three large hive beetles.  I got one of them with the hive tool.  Maybe I need a real roof?

There was a nice cloud of bees out around the entrance today.  I drew the bar back a bit and took some video:

In the air:

At the entrance:

The last time I took a quick look at the hive, there were two combs stuck together.  I took all the combs out today and separated them.  I wonder whether I should take the two funny combs and put them off at the back to encourage the bees to clean them out and abandon them.

I still need to number the combs for better tracking.  I removed the cleaned out comb that I had dropped some time ago.  There were a few hive beetles hiding underneath it.  They are now deceased and the hive appears to be quite free of SHB.

A review of the video shows 10 bars of comb.