That was a struggle.
Moved the Cedar hive off onto a workmate. It nearly slid off again as the workmate wasn't nearly level :-( so put it on the floor instead.
Tried to make the ground and two breeze blocks level. Really tricky; still not very level but had rather a large cloud of bees telling me to get on with it cos they wanting to put their pollen somewhere . . .
Put new poly floor down, put new poly brood box full of frames with foundation (some full, some half) on the new floor. Next went the second new brood box (empty).
Now I had to move the current 'colony 2' frames into the new top brood box, in the right order and orientation. Did this very carefully, trying not to let any bees drop off the frames in case one was the queen. This went fairly well too, with the cloud of bees getting even bigger.
Although the bees were clearly unhappy about the whole process, they weren't in full attack mode, just "hurry up and then sod off" mode - I'm sure all beekeepers know what I mean.
Clear plastic sheet on, after I noticed it had another blue peel-off coating on the other side
Roof on, with a brick on top as I didn't want to give them more grief with the whole strap thing today. Didn't squash any bees in the whole process - I don't think
Retreated, leaving the bits of the Cedar hive (floor, brood box and roof) in front of the new hive to allow some stray bees to make their way home.
Checked on them from a distance a few minutes later and a big cloud of pollen foragers were looking confused and gradually finding the new entrance, a foot or so below where it was before. A few were fanning, to help them.
The hive seems to be tilting forwards a bit too, so I'll need to sort that out.
The colony now have their original frames in the top box and a lower box with new frames for them to expand downwards into.
I didn't check the current frames well when I moved them, but there was at least one with eggs in, lots more bees than before, a few frames still to be drawn. I think the strong foraging, the warm brood boxes, and the time of year should ensure they fill out both boxes before Winter and then have a top box of stores to live on.
FG
Moved the Cedar hive off onto a workmate. It nearly slid off again as the workmate wasn't nearly level :-( so put it on the floor instead.
Tried to make the ground and two breeze blocks level. Really tricky; still not very level but had rather a large cloud of bees telling me to get on with it cos they wanting to put their pollen somewhere . . .
Put new poly floor down, put new poly brood box full of frames with foundation (some full, some half) on the new floor. Next went the second new brood box (empty).
Now I had to move the current 'colony 2' frames into the new top brood box, in the right order and orientation. Did this very carefully, trying not to let any bees drop off the frames in case one was the queen. This went fairly well too, with the cloud of bees getting even bigger.
Although the bees were clearly unhappy about the whole process, they weren't in full attack mode, just "hurry up and then sod off" mode - I'm sure all beekeepers know what I mean.
Clear plastic sheet on, after I noticed it had another blue peel-off coating on the other side
Roof on, with a brick on top as I didn't want to give them more grief with the whole strap thing today. Didn't squash any bees in the whole process - I don't think Retreated, leaving the bits of the Cedar hive (floor, brood box and roof) in front of the new hive to allow some stray bees to make their way home.
Checked on them from a distance a few minutes later and a big cloud of pollen foragers were looking confused and gradually finding the new entrance, a foot or so below where it was before. A few were fanning, to help them.
The hive seems to be tilting forwards a bit too, so I'll need to sort that out.
The colony now have their original frames in the top box and a lower box with new frames for them to expand downwards into.
I didn't check the current frames well when I moved them, but there was at least one with eggs in, lots more bees than before, a few frames still to be drawn. I think the strong foraging, the warm brood boxes, and the time of year should ensure they fill out both boxes before Winter and then have a top box of stores to live on.
FG
