Jay1911
New Bee
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2014
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Preston
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 2
Hi all,
I am new to bee keeping having only had a hive for a couple of months. I completed an introduction course last year run by the local bee keeping club then was lucky enough to purchase a full hive + bees from someone local who was moving away.
I have been managing to do regular inspection on the occasional sunny days we have had but have not been able to get down to the hive for nearly three weeks until today.
So after what seemed like weeks of cold wet weather I took the opportunity today, while the sun was shining, to go and inspect the hive.
The bees seemed very calm so hardly any smoke was needed, I worked my way through the supers (there are three on the hive), the top one is untouched and the bottom two really didn't have much activity at all, they seems a lot lighter than last time as well so I guess the bees have been eating the honey to keep them going during the bad weather.
I took off the Queen excluder and was pleased to see they are using the second brood chamber, as I attempted to take out each frame I noticed that they were stuck to the bottom frame, I tried removing a couple but it looks like they have joined the top to the bottom and filled them with grubs.
I didn't carry on as I was doing a lot of damage to the comb and exposing grubs. The inside of the hive looks a mess and I don't know what to do or how to clean/tidy it up, or even if I should ?
Any help/advise would be gratefully received as I really don't know what to do
thanks in advance,
a worried newbee,
James.
I am new to bee keeping having only had a hive for a couple of months. I completed an introduction course last year run by the local bee keeping club then was lucky enough to purchase a full hive + bees from someone local who was moving away.
I have been managing to do regular inspection on the occasional sunny days we have had but have not been able to get down to the hive for nearly three weeks until today.
So after what seemed like weeks of cold wet weather I took the opportunity today, while the sun was shining, to go and inspect the hive.
The bees seemed very calm so hardly any smoke was needed, I worked my way through the supers (there are three on the hive), the top one is untouched and the bottom two really didn't have much activity at all, they seems a lot lighter than last time as well so I guess the bees have been eating the honey to keep them going during the bad weather.
I took off the Queen excluder and was pleased to see they are using the second brood chamber, as I attempted to take out each frame I noticed that they were stuck to the bottom frame, I tried removing a couple but it looks like they have joined the top to the bottom and filled them with grubs.
I didn't carry on as I was doing a lot of damage to the comb and exposing grubs. The inside of the hive looks a mess and I don't know what to do or how to clean/tidy it up, or even if I should ?
Any help/advise would be gratefully received as I really don't know what to do
thanks in advance,
a worried newbee,
James.