omnimirage
New Bee
I offered to look after the hives of a family friend who was an active apiarist in exchange for honey, many months after other commitments prevented him from maintaining his hives. The hives are truly in a terrible, mismanaged state, making it difficult to do basic maintenance.
The other day, I opened up a hive to find all the frames full of honey and rather locked in with propolis. The hive was four deep, and the supers were quite difficult to undo. They are also particularly heavy; I can't lift them alone. After lifting two supers, I could tell that the bees would get aggressive if I went any deeper. Despite not knowing exactly what to look for, I figured it was important to check up on the brood chamber, especially since I wanted to ensure that there weren’t any queen cells or signs of disease/unhealthiness. How important is it for me to check every super, including the brood chamber? What should I be checking for?
When I went to take off the third super, the hive moved and split slightly at the bottom with many aggressive bees coming out of the gap. The split was down at the brood chamber and on the board. It was difficult to close off, and I had to flee afterwards. There were many aggressive, leering bees in the area for some time, making it troublesome to check nearby bee hives.
I then checked a hive that was isolated from the others. This one was much more peaceful: fairly neglected, but not quite as much. I managed to take some photos of it:
http://imgur.com/a/HIsbZ
This hive is five deep, with one shallow depth super. The last couple of photos were of some comb that was crammed in where the hivetool was in the second picture. The supers were unable to be stacked on top of each other due to this massive piece of honeycomb hanging off it. It had a bit of honey in it, but it was quite disfigured and large, and I couldn't fit it in well anywhere. Although I wasn’t sure of what to do with it, it had signs of many drones growing in it so I decided to discard it. I later saw it had some larvae, but it was too late to take it back to the hive.
I extracted all the honey from one of the supers, and cleaned up all the wax and honey. I didn't check deeper in the hive and I didn't have time to check the rest of the hives. Besides, the bees from the aggressive hive were still attacking us a good 50 meters off. What should I do if they're too aggressive to be able to easily do such work?
Other times working the site, I've found the supers to be stuck together significantly. I've only gotten to one of their brood chambers once and when it happened, a large piece of mangled comb tore apart as I lifted the super, causing the bees to become incredibly aggressive. I needed to vacate the area but couldn't easily put the super back on as the comb was torn in multiple places. What should I do when it's difficult to open the supers and check what's going on? Should I just keep opening them to scrape off all the mangled stuff and what not, until they're in better order?
I'm not sure what my general objective should be for these hives now. I was under the impression that I should try to install a queen excluder, so that future honey I extract won't come in dark, disfigured comb like shown, but what I learned from posting last is that a queen excluder may be even more detrimental to me now. If I don't use queen excluders, what else can I do to prevent the comb from going dark and unappetizing?
The other day, I opened up a hive to find all the frames full of honey and rather locked in with propolis. The hive was four deep, and the supers were quite difficult to undo. They are also particularly heavy; I can't lift them alone. After lifting two supers, I could tell that the bees would get aggressive if I went any deeper. Despite not knowing exactly what to look for, I figured it was important to check up on the brood chamber, especially since I wanted to ensure that there weren’t any queen cells or signs of disease/unhealthiness. How important is it for me to check every super, including the brood chamber? What should I be checking for?
When I went to take off the third super, the hive moved and split slightly at the bottom with many aggressive bees coming out of the gap. The split was down at the brood chamber and on the board. It was difficult to close off, and I had to flee afterwards. There were many aggressive, leering bees in the area for some time, making it troublesome to check nearby bee hives.
I then checked a hive that was isolated from the others. This one was much more peaceful: fairly neglected, but not quite as much. I managed to take some photos of it:
http://imgur.com/a/HIsbZ
This hive is five deep, with one shallow depth super. The last couple of photos were of some comb that was crammed in where the hivetool was in the second picture. The supers were unable to be stacked on top of each other due to this massive piece of honeycomb hanging off it. It had a bit of honey in it, but it was quite disfigured and large, and I couldn't fit it in well anywhere. Although I wasn’t sure of what to do with it, it had signs of many drones growing in it so I decided to discard it. I later saw it had some larvae, but it was too late to take it back to the hive.
I extracted all the honey from one of the supers, and cleaned up all the wax and honey. I didn't check deeper in the hive and I didn't have time to check the rest of the hives. Besides, the bees from the aggressive hive were still attacking us a good 50 meters off. What should I do if they're too aggressive to be able to easily do such work?
Other times working the site, I've found the supers to be stuck together significantly. I've only gotten to one of their brood chambers once and when it happened, a large piece of mangled comb tore apart as I lifted the super, causing the bees to become incredibly aggressive. I needed to vacate the area but couldn't easily put the super back on as the comb was torn in multiple places. What should I do when it's difficult to open the supers and check what's going on? Should I just keep opening them to scrape off all the mangled stuff and what not, until they're in better order?
I'm not sure what my general objective should be for these hives now. I was under the impression that I should try to install a queen excluder, so that future honey I extract won't come in dark, disfigured comb like shown, but what I learned from posting last is that a queen excluder may be even more detrimental to me now. If I don't use queen excluders, what else can I do to prevent the comb from going dark and unappetizing?
