hallo from newbie and a question

[Lichfield Bee Man]

Hi there

We bought a nuc a month ago, and a National, popped them in, all good. We've waited for them to almost fill out the brood frames, and popped supers on a few days ago. They seem v happy, not aggressive etc. Back from pub tonight something made me go and look, and there is a whole bunch of them gathered on the landing board - see pic.

What does this mean? Bit warm so let's sleep al fresco?? I tipped the lid gingerly and I can see them beavering away on the supers I put in.

I looked on Sunday for a new queen cell, didn't see one but I am a bee virgin so to speak. I will have a proper look tomorrow but am now panicking that they are about to swarm?

Any advice most welcome!

 

[VEG]

they are feeling hot and just gone out for a cool off

 

[Lichfield Bee Man]

Ah brilliant, thank you Veg. I am completely in awe of these wonderful insects, just want to do the right thing. Cheers.

 

[richardbees]

ditto Craig

One of my colonies is the same - it's in a corner that gets the least breeze.

You could try putting matchsticks under the corners of the cover/crown board to improve in-hive ventilation.

richard

 

[Queens59]

Ditto - heat and bees don't mix, as the pic shows...they proceeded to cover the entire front of a 6 floor WBC. We were at 31 degrees this afternoon...
BY the way does anyone know how to sell a house at swarm time?? They all seen scared of bees...

 

[nematode]

One of my hives is the same on warm evenings. They have a beard of bees just hanging about outside while the other stronger hive is all tucked away and out of sight.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

ditto Craig


You could try putting matchsticks under the corners of the cover/crown board to improve in-hive ventilation.

richard

 

[Suzi Q]

Goddam, you're brave richardbees!

 

[Lichfield Bee Man]

Thanks all, this is very reassuring!

 

[Poly Hive]

Actually nothing wrong with that at the moment, many people in hot climates offer a 2nd entrance to the supers and the units I have from Lyson (Polish) have upper entrances which can be opened or closed in hotter weather.

Not that I actually thought I would ever need them.....

PH

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've just put back the kingspan insulation under the metal roofs.
You could have fried an egg on them yesterday.

 

[oliver90owner]

I've just put back the kingspan insulation under the metal roofs.
You could have fried an egg on them yesterday.

No real need. You may well have fried an egg on the metal cladding but inside the roof, the temp will be much less and there will be an insulating layer of air (cheaper than using air in insulation!). Even with the kinspan you will still be able to fry the egg.

Think here of convection, and compare your hive roof with the bottom of your hot water cylinder - no insulation on there and stone cold at the bottom? Both water and air are superb insulators where conduction has to be the mode of heat loss.

RAB

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hmmmmmm
That's what my husband said though not as eloquently

 

[dudley]

I've just put back the kingspan insulation under the metal roofs.
You could have fried an egg on them yesterday.

No real need. You may well have fried an egg on the metal cladding but inside the roof, the temp will be much less and there will be an insulating layer of air (cheaper than using air in insulation!). Even with the kinspan you will still be able to fry the egg.

Think here of convection, and compare your hive roof with the bottom of your hot water cylinder - no insulation on there and stone cold at the bottom? Both water and air are superb insulators where conduction has to be the mode of heat loss.

RAB

Could not agree more. Putting on my builders hat now, and putting insulation of any sort under the roof is not a good idea. The heat build up from within the hive wont escape through the insulation, it's ventilation that is required and possibly shading to the metal roof.

 

[Lichfield Bee Man]

Hi, we just had a good look inside. The brood frames are all full, and we scraped off some cells from the side of the frame - see attached picture. Lots of honey in the brood frames. The supers are being built out. We have the queen separator between the two. AS you can see they have built out cells at the side and we guess these are just regular larvae not queens? You can see gaps behind, but are they struggling for space to lay?

How do we create more space for the queen (saw her, looking fine) to lay eggs? Should we move the separator up above the supers, and put another rack of supers on top again? Or do we swap a full honey-only frame out for a blank one? We did a 2 day course miles away but haven't made it to the local group yet on Sat am due to family commitments so we're feeling a bit vulnerable.

And I now realise we left far too much space between the brood frames, the supers are much closer together.

All counsel gratefully received

Jeremy

 

[Tom Bick]

Could not agree more. Putting on my builders hat now, and putting insulation of any sort under the roof is not a good idea. The heat build up from within the hive wont escape through the insulation, it's ventilation that is required and possibly shading to the metal roof.

Plenty of ventilation with OMF.

 

[Tom Bick]

Hi Jeremy don’t know who made your hive but you should not be getting wild comb and brood on the sides of the frames.

The dimensions of the BB must be wrong or odd sized frames?

 

[Lichfield Bee Man]

The hive is a WBC actually - just changed that on the profile. We definitely left too much space between them, but I don't know about the gap underneath. The frames we had in the nuc were the same size as the ones we made up, and we just popped them in. The frames being used for the supers are all the same and seem to fit well.

 

[Tom Bick]

WBC or National the frames are the same size.

The WBC has one less frame than the National the National generally fitted with 11 frames and a dummy board.

The BB for the WBC has different outside dimensions than the National and made of thinner material but both hives respect the beespace this is approx 6-8mm so the gaps at the side bars and the inside wall of your BB should be 6-8mm at each end if to big as I know in your case from the photo the bees will fill it with comb and Drone comb.

I bet the frame was awkward to remove.

Sorry its not a total disaster but you have something wrong do you have a photo looking down onto the BB with the frames fitted.

 

[oliver90owner]

The frame must be fairly full of brood, but they are likely to just replace that wax after every time you clean it off, whether brooding in it or not. You will just have a mess if replacing those frames without cleaning them up.

A WBC brood box is generally considered woefully small for the modern strains of bee (that is why so many beekeepers went to a brood and a half all those years ago - it was small even then!).

The gap underneath is not quite so important (frame to floor), but if they are filling that with comb, they are either tight for brooding space or the gap is excessive.

Every time you inspect you are going to disturb your bees far more than necessary; I suggest you look to remedy this fault sooner rather than later.

RAB