April 29, 2018
It’s been over a week since I last wrote my blog. The weather finally broke, and I had things to do!
I have been feeding the bees every other day, and adding to the 5 gal pail outside feeder every couple days. I have noted pollen coming in, and am waiting for the dandelions to start to pop for them to get some early nectar.
I was able to get my swarm trap out, and hung up. It is all ready for any bees to move on in! That was pretty straight forward. I strapped it on to the kids swingset. I figured since our kids have outgrown the swingset, and no grandkids in sight for awhile, I may as well use that structure.
I have been having an ongoing issue this spring with Hive White. I figured that the hive body must have bowed. Because the follower boards no longer fit inside. They fit perfectly last year. By them not fitting right, this allowed an upper entrance to the hive on both the front and the back of the hive. Entrance holes mean guard bees. Guard bees are cranky. I was getting stung just feeding them sugar syrup. I had to come up with a plan.
Well, I did come up with a plan. I have the top bar hive that I picked up from my dad last fall. My son Josh and I got it out, cleaned up, and moved in place of Hive White. Then, I moved each bar over to the new hive. Put in the follower boards and … they didn’t fit. So, instead of the hive body bowing, the follower boards are growing.
So now I need a new plan. I am thinking that I will take my circular saw and take off 1/4” off the bottom. My concern there is that somehow they will shrink back to their original size, and leave a gap on the bottom.
It’s beekeeping, it’s always something!
Thanks for reading along.
