Mesh floor

[Honeybeeco]

Perhaps they have been flying but by the time you get back from work they are back home and ready for bed, and that's why you haven't see them?

Assuming the hives on a stand, You could have a look up through the mess floor with a torch when it's dark as you'll see them clustering and moving a little, or why you don't just lift the crown board on the next nice, dry day and have a very quick look down inside, to see if you see any moving bees.

Put your bee suit and bits on before doing any of those two, to give yourself a little confidence.

Also, don't worry about having left the board in below the Open Mesh Floor ( OMF)- there is no right or wrong way. It's just personal choice as some of us leave them in and some of us leave them out over winter ( I do both depending where the hive is situated)

You doing great, Keep up the good work.

Andy.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Clean your inspection tray, put it back for 24 hours, take a picture of any debris and post it on here.

 

[Fatbee]

I would suggest you need to do two additional things:keep reading up about behaviour of bees, understanding how they work will tell you more why they do what they do and how doing things with the hive will affect them; and relax a bit more because you sound like you're stressing over everything! Keeping calm, not panicking is key and if you can get some local support that will help you a lot

 

[Levitt53]

All good advice. I put the board back last night as it was cold but have just taken it off again. Bees haven't flown much with it there, have flown once it is removed, so learning from the bees I'm going to keep it out. Forecast for weekend is good, so I'm going to switch the boxes round at the weekend, I have the super on the bottom. I'll take a quick look at what is there but not worry too much about finding the queen (she's unmarked).

I have looked at the board regularly and there has been nothing there which even with my untrained eye I think could be a varroa mite so I don't think that's a problem.

I have read loads trust me, but yes have got a bit stressed about this so hopefully they fly over the next couple of days and I will be fine.

Thanks all.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Forecast for weekend is good, so I'm going to switch the boxes round at the weekend, I have the super on the bottom. .

Are you going to revert to single brood (queen excluder between deep and shallow boxes) or keep them on brood and a half? if keeping on brood and a half - I wouldn't bother swapping them over yet and cracking the crownboard, leave them until the proper warm weather starts.

 

[Erichalfbee]

don't put that super on top. It's likely empty and you'll be giving them too much headroom to heat. What did the inspection tray look like this morning?

 

[bontbee]

I'm going to switch the boxes round at the weekend, I have the super on the bottom.

I agree with JBM - leave the boxes as they are.

If they are brooding, which they are likely to be, the brood is most likely to be in the top box, (I'm assuming that's a "standard" deep, ie not 14 x 12, box). If you swap the boxes the brood will end up at the coolest part of the hive, and you may well be putting empty frames above. If the brood nest is covering parts of frames in both boxes you would be splitting the brood nest , so it's best not to do any swapping til it's warmer and you can see exactly what you've got in there.

It'll all come right, but I know how hard it is to resist opening up to see what's going on!

 

[Levitt53]

Ah ok but in another thread everyone was saying to do it now. I wasn't going to put the super on top if it was empty, I appreciate the heat issue. Hmmm will probably leave it then.

I only put the board in at about 11.30 as we were out and I realised how cold it was so there wasn't much of anything on it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ah ok but in another thread everyone was saying to do it now
That's OK if you are taking a nadired shallow away entirely.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ah ok but in another thread everyone was saying to do it now
That's OK if you are taking a nadired shallow away entirely.

......... but if you are going to keep to brood and a half with the shallow on top, no point taking off to put back on later - wait and eventually the queen will move to lay in the shallow as well and if you feel the need swap it to go on top, by that time the colony will be strong enough to cope with anything!

 

[Levitt53]

Sorry but what is a nadired shallow? None of the books I've read have mentioned this or the fact that you swap the super and the brood box over to winter them. I can understand the principle though. Warmer at the top, stores underneath. I sort of assumed that my super would have some honey in it so putting it back on top would restore the natural order of these thing. But if it was mainly brood then yes I wouldn't want to split it up when the colony was weak. I wouldn't be adding a QX now.

 

[bontbee]

I think the natural order is what you have now! The bees will have been consuming stores and making space for brooding. Going in to winter the stores are normally "above" and "behind" the brood nest. As winter progresses, they munch through the stores. That's why the broodnest is unlikely to be in the bottom box, and that that box could well be, more or less, empty.

There could, however, still be an "arch" of honey over the broodnest, hence my comment that they might be brooding on parts of frames in both boxes.

(Putting the varroa insert in will give you an idea of the lateral position of the nest, whether it's central or off to one side or the other).

I've never read about nadired shallows in books, I've only seen it here. I think, it's putting a box that would normally be a "super", ie a shallow above the brood nest, below the brood. I'm not sure if nadiring applies when you put a super under existing supers, if you see what I mean... I'm sure someone more familiar with the term will advise!

 

[Erichalfbee]

......... but if you are going to keep to brood and a half with the shallow on top, no point taking off to put back on later - wait and eventually the queen will move to lay in the shallow as well and if you feel the need swap it to go on top, by that time the colony will be strong enough to cope with anything!

Our association hives on brood and a half are kept with the shallow on the bottom

 

[bontbee]

Is that a nadired super, or just a half brood?????

 

[Erichalfbee]

Half brood is on the bottom.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sorry but what is a nadired shallow? None of the books I've read have mentioned this or the fact that you swap the super and the brood box over to winter them. I can understand the principle though. Warmer at the top, stores underneath. I sort of assumed that my super would have some honey in it so putting it back on top would restore the natural order of these thing. But if it was mainly brood then yes I wouldn't want to split it up when the colony was weak. I wouldn't be adding a QX now.

It's a fancy way of saying you put the shallow box( a super in this case) under the brood box. A lot of people do it if there is unusable honey. The bees don't like stores underneath so move them up into the brood box. It's a useful way of topping up winter stores but you have to do it while the bees are still active. Liked by some beekeepers and not by others

 

[BeeJayBee]

Perhaps they have been flying but by the time you get back from work they are back home and ready for bed, and that's why you haven't see them?

Do bees go to bed? Do they even sleep?