I’m back – yes, I went away for 2 weeks: 5 days of driving and 7 days of hiking Paria Canyon in southern Utah.
“The Narrows” in Paria Canyon – the river is the trail
Before I left I had to do my spring chores:
Clean boxes and frames that I pulled from the hives in the Spring Cleaning.
Prepare supers to put on the hives that would need them while I was gone
Put those supers on the hives
Cleaning Boxes:
Ready For Cleaning
I take my hive tool with the wide curved end and remove any heavy wax/propolis build up. I don’t get obsessive about it. I just want a somewhat tidy environment for the new frames.
Scrape both top and bottom edges of the box
Scrape the indents where the frames sit
Scrape any wax build up on the inside of the box.
Sorting Frames:
Numbered by Year
All frames that have been used for 5 years in honey are out of the equipment. All frames that have done only brood for 3 years are removed as well. Frames that have done a bit of brood, a bit of honey, get put into honey rotation. I don’t use queen excluders, so the queen puts brood wherever she wants to in the hive.
On cleaning I, again, just scrape off any big build-ups on the bars.
Preparing Supers:
Sometimes it seems like I’m doing a beekeeper’s version of the myth of Sisyphus. For eternity, he had to keep rolling a stone up a hill, which would then fall back down, and then he’d push it up again. With me in the spring it’s : clean boxes and frames, store neatly, then take boxes and fill them with the frames.
Frame Placement in Supers:
Frames lined up in their super
Although my splits and supers are arranged differently, they get the same proportions of foundation to drawn comb – until I run out of drawn comb and go over to all foundation. These are : 4 pieces of drawn comb. 6 pieces of foundation
The order in the boxes: (potions 1 to 10 going across the hive)
1 foundation
2 drawn comb for honey
3 foundation
4 drawn comb for brood
5 foundation
Then repeat in reverse order to the other side:
F, C, F, C, F
Placing Supers on Hives (aka The Method to the Madness)
Supers Ready For Bee Yard
The above will (and should) seem a bit strange. But there’s a reason.
When I put the super on the hive I:
Remove the center foundations (5 & 6) and set aside
Move the 2 center frames from the to-be-supered hive in positions 5 & 6 in the super
Put the foundations I removed in positions 2 & 8 in the lower box
Place the super on the hive.
When I come back to check the super in 2 weeks, if the box is being drawn out and filled, I will THEN frames 1 and 2 switch places, and 9 and 10 switch places.
In effect, I am working the box as an 8-frame box until that moment. I find it helps to keep the comb to a uniform depth as they are drawn out.
Chores done – Off to hike.
Having completed all that, I jumped in my truck, drove to Utah and had a marvelous hike in one of the natural wonders of the world. Next blog will be about that trip – I did see some bees….
That’s the news – admittedly a bit belated – from Brookfield Farm Bees And Honey. How’s the honey flow going in your area? Big Leaf Maples are still going here and the Cascara is about to bloom.
Brookfield Farm Bees & Honey Blog 