Andrew Siwko’s Blog #2

The brood comb that I put in the back of the hive has been mostly cleaned up:

I took it out, cut out the brood cells and returned it to the top of the hive leaning up against a brick.

The inspection lasted almost 30 minutes. Here’s the 4X:

The bees appear to be building at a slight angle. The comb at the left is set back while the comb at the right is forward of the bar. Several combs are build across two bars. One of the full combs (built out with honey and good brood) dropped down off the bar. It stayed vertical, so I left it in place and made spaces on either side for the bees to fill in.

The SHB were there as before. I dispatched about 30 of them from the back end. They may be hiding in the corners along the bottom board. I think about how to get the SHB frequently now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_hive_beetle

http://beehivejournal.blogspot.com/2009/02/cd-case-small-hive-beetle-trap.html

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2009/03/splits-and-new-small-hive-beetle-trap.html

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?228063-Small-Hive-Beetle-Nematodes

http://www.beehacker.com/wp/?p=131

http://www.wasba.org/SHB.pdf

http://www.beeworks.com/informationcentre/small_hive_beetle.html

http://southeasterninsectaries.com/custom3_1.html

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov07/beetle1107.htm

http://www.freshfromflorida.com/pi/enpp/ento/aethinanew.html

Cleanup time! I took out some wonky comb. The bees are building across top bars. Comb with brood I put in to the back of the hive. We didn’t need the honey so I set it on a plate and put a Langstroth super up on the front end of the hive. Here’s the plate with the comb on it:

Here’s the super from the outside:

Note that the super hangs off the sides of the top bars.  The next bars that I cut will be an inch longer so that standard Langstroth equipment will work with it.  I’m not sure the details, but it would be useful if I could both rest equipment on the top bar as in this picture and hang the top bar in place of a frame.  I think an adapter is in order.

The brood comb I set in the back of the hive followed by a view of the inside of the hive:

This technique seems to be pretty successful in that the bees will clean up the comb and I don’t find new brood back there. They do put in some nectar and fix the comb to the box. They also built some new comb nearby on a top bar and there, I found some SHB back there:

They don’t appear to be strong throughout the hive which is good, after last year, I’m still nervous…