I'm a beekeeper

[taff..]

and i've never been stung

'tis true, every word and there's not many beekepers that can say it

the truth is slightly less glam, sunday was the first day of me owning bee's and I've been through the hive for the first time on sunday afternoon, I managed to do it without stressing anyone out.

the bee's came from a 5 frame nuc that were bursting at the seams, lots of bee's, brood, stores and pollen completely covering 5 frames just as you'd expect, they've got plenty of room now that they are in a hive and have a few frames to draw out.

When I arrived at the hive I stood and watched the entrance for a minute and didn't see a single bee so started thinking they'd buggered off, My heart sank and thought I tripped at the first hurdle so I lifted the roof off and cracked a corner of the crown board, I heard a buzz, thank gawd for that, all is fine after all. I worked my way through the 5 frames and saw empty queen cups, and brood from newly laid eggs to a bee emerging from its cell

I found the queen scurrying around on the middle frame, tried to catch her with a cage to mark her but I needed 3 hands to do it without spiking any poor workers, I gave up after 2 attempts with a view to doing it when someone else more experienced is with me.

I left them with a feeder on to help them along the way with drawing out the foundation but having had a quick peek under the roof last night they dont seem to have touched it yet so I presume they are happy with the amount of stores they already have and are using them up first.

happy days.

 

[Finman]

the bee's came from a 5 frame nuc that were bursting at the seams, lots of bee's, brood, stores and pollen completely covering 5 frames just as you'd expect, they've got plenty of room now that they are in a hive and have a few frames to draw out.]

It woud be better if you restrict the hive room to size which colony can occupye. Put extra wall into hive and give only one foundation to be built. It helps colony growing.

 

[taff..]

Thanks Finman, when I open them up next weekend I'll take out some of the frames that they are not needing at the moment.

What sort of timescale would you normally expect a colony of this size to take to draw out a frame of foundation? are we looking at a couple of days or a week or more?