The beginning of September seems a mite (no pun intended) early to be writing about winter, but the Future Plans section has been largely ignored for the entire summer, and I guess they wouldn’t be future plans if I wasn’t writing early.
Winter
As I wrote in the spring, I seem to be the far south of the far north. The winters here are cold enough to believe that insulating hives is worth the effort, especially for a hobbyist beekeeper who has the time and willingness to do so.
Layout
My expansion this year from two to six hives plus a nuc has me short on drawn comb. My solution is to use dummy boards symmetrically in the outside positions of the lower bodies. The hives at the house should be able to have six frames in the lower body, meaning a dummy board on each side, and full boxes for the second and third box. The alfalfa hives are a bit shorter, requiring two boxes of six topped with a full eight frame third box. This isn’t ideal, but I believe it’s the best way I can give them as much comb as I possibly can.
Insulation
I then plan to use 1″ extruded polystyrene foam insulation on all 4 sides of each hive, wrapping that in tar paper and simply cinching it tight with nylon cord wrapped around the hive. The hole in the screen bottom board will also get a piece of insulation inserted from below.
Moisture
I hate the idea of having a notched inner cover allowing warm air to escape at the top of the hive, but when picking between losing heat or trapping moisture, the answer is lost heat every time. For additional moisture control, I have a half depth “attic” box in mind for each hive. I’ll use the same foam insulation inserted into the top and bottom of each attic box with some straw in between. The lower piece of insulation will have a hole cut out to match that of the inner cover. The hole coupled with the straw will hopefully catch and hold moisture that comes up through the hole. This attic will also serve a dual purpose in that I can use it to check on and feed the hive without cracking open the bodies in the spring should that become necessary.
Next Year
I’m barely comfortable having six hives, but at the same time really enjoy having that number plus a pair of nucs. They keep me busy and completely engaged without being too overwhelming. I’m now down one nuc, but hopefully next spring will see another begin. I don’t plan for any expansion next year. If I fit into the average, I’ll lose two to three of my hives this winter and use swarms or splits to replace those next year. I’m already sad just typing that out, but I can only resign myself to the expectation.
Today I made a return visit to Alhambra, the weak nuc. On my last visit I had reduced them to 2 frames after failing to find a queen and noticing many bees that look as though they had been fighting robbers. That purpose of that previous visit was to pinch the queen and bring the nuc up to combine it with Warwick. I couldn’t find the queen, so I let it alone, and was hoping to either find the queen or find cells on this visit. Well, I got my answer. A large emergency queen cell had been started on one of the frames, so clearly the queen was gone. I checked the two frames over again just in case, but by now I was fairly certain she was missing. I was spared the trauma of having to pinch her.
I cinched up the nuc with a ratchet strap and carted it up to the house. A quick newspaper combine with Warwick and walked away. The Alhambra bees were none too happy after that bumpy ride from the field. Now we’re in for days of rain, so I expect after only a day or two the combine will be complete…and fingers crossed for success.
Friday (9/2) I was primed and ready to pinch the queen in Alhambra, then bring it up to the house and do a newspaper combine with Warwick. I looked and looked and looked and couldn’t find the queen. It’s only five medium frames for Pete’s sake. I got to thinking that maybe she wasn’t there. But I saw eggs and young larva, albeit very small patches of each. I will say that many bees of the few there) had bright shiny thoraces, a sure sign they had been fighting robbers.
So late in the aftenroon I went back to try again. I still couldn’t find her. Looked hard but not quite as long. I also went a little more prepared this time. I had my nuc divider and two half-lids. After failing to find her a second time that day, I removed three of the frames, none of which had any brood or stores (that nuc was weak) and put in my divider, confining the whole colony to two frames. I was then able to bring the three frames back to the house, give two to Warwick and one to Belmonte.
I guess not being able to find her saved me the trauma of having to pinch her, but the fact that I found eggs and a little young brood with no queen cells leads me to believe she still is really there. I’m also hoping that confining her will allow her to lay both those frames basically solid, giving me more evidence that she’s there or completely missing. In any case, I need those frames, so that nuc will be dismantled one way or the other.
Update on the hives and also they’re getting names. Referring to something using a name that has always been unnamed seems a little odd at first, but if I don’t do it now, I never will.
The naming scheme will be castles.
Standing behind the hives, from left to right
House Hives
- Calahorra: One of the three Rossman packages
- Belmonte: Neffsville swarm
- Warwick: Nuc started as an artificial swarm when Avila built swarm cells
- Sintra: Busy Bees Apiaries package
Alfalfa Hives
- Coca: One of the three Rossman packages
- Avila: One of the three Rossman packages
- Alhambra: Nuc started from a collection of removed frames.
- Osma: Keeney and Ziegler Apiaries package
So now, attempting to use the new names, is an update. All hives are queen right post Mite Away Quick Strip treatment.
Calahorra is still a booming hive, it’s almost unnatural. It’s working on drawing out its fourth box, and is about as far along on this box as Belmonte is on its second. The queen is the original package queen from Rossman. If they keep drawing at this rate, they may require a fifth box just to keep them busy.
Belmonte is doing reasonably well with respect to population, but behind in comb construction since they were nothing more than a swarm at the end of June. I put another gallon of 1:1 syrup on them today in the hopes that they’ll use it to draw more comb. I believe I’ll have enough comb from other hives to make up for any shortage, but I’d rather them draw as much as possible. Since I won’t get any honey from them, feeding them syrup isn’t an issue.
Warwick is doing well for a nuc, although little progress has been made on its second box. I’ve put a 1/2 gallon of 1:1 syrup on them to hopefully prompt them to draw a bit before the end of the season. Their queen was the original Avila queen, but they superceded her.
Sintra is doing well but superceded its queen earlier in the year. I believe this set them back a little bit. Their third box is almost completely drawn so I’ve just added a fourth box. They certainly won’t build it out completely but I may get an extra frame or two out of them before the end of the season.
Coca is working on its fourth box now and is doing well. It’s the second strongest hive only behind Calahorra. It has its original queen as well and has a few really nice frames of honey I’m eyeing up for a small harvest.
Avila is the hive that decided to swarm. I split them before they actually swarmed (the split is now Warwick). Their newly raised queen is my nicest looking and the largest by far. They’re working on filling out their third box of comb. They’re a bit behind since I had to take some for the split and they lost about 1/3 of their bees at that point.
Alhambra is still a mediocre nuc and I still plan to combine it with Warwick mid-September. The queen is laying small patches of larvae and only just keeping up with the normal die-off.
Osma is in need of a fourth box to keep them busy, but I have to get the frames assembled. I may simply give them some empty frames from Avila’s third box and give their drawn comb to Avila. This would be the simpler way of maybe getting a few extra drawn frames from them before the cold.
Overall, I’ll probably have to feed all the hives except for maybe Calahorra. All others have some nice frames of honey, but I don’t think they’re packed in enough for me to be comfortable with the coming winter. I plan to do my final winter manipulations inside the hives during the second week of September. I’ll combine Alhambra and Warwick and redistribute frames so each hive has at least three boxes of fully drawn frames with the top box being as much honey as possible. I also plan to start feeding 2:1 syrup at that time, and I’ll probably just keep it going until the end of September. At that point, the beginning of October, I’ll hope for a warm day and give them one last inspection and be done inside my hives for the season (outside prep is an entirely different matter…more to come).
I’ve been meaning to write a post about this for quite some time. I’d like to document it for myself and maybe it’ll help someone else along.
In going foundationless, there’s always the challenge of how to give the bees a guide on which to build. Many foundationless beekeepers melt wax and drip it along some sort of guide mounted to the top bar. Anything from paint sticks to popsicle sticks to strips of corrugated signs have been used. Kelley’s now sells a “foundationless” frame (link). The top bar is V shaped with the bottom of the V being the bottom of the bar.
My Method
While Kelley’s foundationless frame seems to be a good design, it offers no flexibility if one wants to use foundation for supers. I wanted that flexibility. So I initially bought wedge top bars, removed the wedge and turned it on edge so it was at a right angle to the top bar, providing a guide. The problem was then that the two halves of the top bar were uneven. The bees drew properly once I corrected much of the comb, but it always seemed to be a little heavier on one side of the frame. I then bought grooved top bars and glued three popsicle sticks in the groove. That worked to correct the symmetry, but the bees often chose to draw from the actual corner edge of the top bar, something I’ll admit the Kelley bar would help discourage.
I’ve now found something that really works on my third attempt. I have some foundation, good pure wax cut-comb grade. I do plan to possibly use wired foundation above an excluder in a honey super, when I ever get to the point that I have real supers on my hives. So I cut a sheet of foundation in half widthwise (top to bottom). I then cut those halves lengthwise (side to side) into four strips, so three cuts across each. This gives me 8 strips for an 8-frame box. I then put one strip into the middle of the groove in a grooved topbar frame. In the groove on either side of the foundation, I put a small drop of wood glue, and then insert a tongue depressor. The depressor is on opposite sides of the foundation on opposite sides fo the frame. This wedges the foundation into the grove until the bees can attach it and build from it. This method so far has given me excellently built straight comb right across the top bars. Some pictures would help the explanation. Enjoy.
