pbh4
House Bee
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2010
- Messages
- 172
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Hinckley, Leicestershire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 0
Well, I am am enjoying beekeeping so far . We have had our first colony since Sunday and have been to see them every day, watching them on the landing board and through the perspex cover board. Today, I opened the hive for the first time and did a full inspection - all on my own - very exciting.
The 5-frame nuc went into a standard National brood box on a dull, cool day (Sunday) and we gave 1.5 litres of thin syrup in a frame feeder (ala Hedgerow Pete's video) and 6 frames of foundation. Today, Thursday, a nice sunny day, the syrup had gone and the bees have started drawing one side of one frame of foundation on the side nearest to the frame feeder. I saw the queen, eggs, pearly white grubs of different sizes, loads of capped brood, a little capped honey lots of uncapped stores and pollen.
My questions are these (number 2 is the big one):
1. terminology: What does "one frame of brood" mean? Brood covering the whole of both sides of one frame? Brood just in the middle of both sides? Some brood somewhere on the frame? Something else?
2. It seemed to me that practically every cell in the old comb was in use, either full of brood or food. They have made some progress drawing out one side of one frame of foundation and seem to have been filling it with nectar or syrup as they are drawing it. Is it normal to fill the combs as they are being drawn? Is it a problem that everything is full up? Can they draw the wax quick enough to keep up with the nectar they are bringing in? What do they do if there is nowhere to put new nectar/pollen? Where is the queen supposed to lay if there are no empty cells? The hive is clearly not full but the comb is. Is that okay?
3. The experienced beekeeper who sold me the bees is down scaling and I could probably get empty brood comb from him. (He has already offered me drawn super frames). Is there any advantage to this? Or should I just let them get on with it? Obviously my bees already have whatever diseases his bees have since they were his bees last week!
4. What is the going rate for drawn comb?
I think I was well prepared before I got the bees. I have read about 10 books and practically lived on this forum for half a year. I have handled bees on a few occasions and am friends with and Italian bee farmer but it all feels different having my own colony to look after. It's like having a new baby - I'm excited but anxious.
Cheers,
Paul
The 5-frame nuc went into a standard National brood box on a dull, cool day (Sunday) and we gave 1.5 litres of thin syrup in a frame feeder (ala Hedgerow Pete's video) and 6 frames of foundation. Today, Thursday, a nice sunny day, the syrup had gone and the bees have started drawing one side of one frame of foundation on the side nearest to the frame feeder. I saw the queen, eggs, pearly white grubs of different sizes, loads of capped brood, a little capped honey lots of uncapped stores and pollen.
My questions are these (number 2 is the big one):
1. terminology: What does "one frame of brood" mean? Brood covering the whole of both sides of one frame? Brood just in the middle of both sides? Some brood somewhere on the frame? Something else?
2. It seemed to me that practically every cell in the old comb was in use, either full of brood or food. They have made some progress drawing out one side of one frame of foundation and seem to have been filling it with nectar or syrup as they are drawing it. Is it normal to fill the combs as they are being drawn? Is it a problem that everything is full up? Can they draw the wax quick enough to keep up with the nectar they are bringing in? What do they do if there is nowhere to put new nectar/pollen? Where is the queen supposed to lay if there are no empty cells? The hive is clearly not full but the comb is. Is that okay?
3. The experienced beekeeper who sold me the bees is down scaling and I could probably get empty brood comb from him. (He has already offered me drawn super frames). Is there any advantage to this? Or should I just let them get on with it? Obviously my bees already have whatever diseases his bees have since they were his bees last week!
4. What is the going rate for drawn comb?
I think I was well prepared before I got the bees. I have read about 10 books and practically lived on this forum for half a year. I have handled bees on a few occasions and am friends with and Italian bee farmer but it all feels different having my own colony to look after. It's like having a new baby - I'm excited but anxious.
Cheers,
Paul