New pics posted.

[beebreeder]

Kaz
You are not with me, frame spacing is hoffman,that is the gap between each frame allowing bee space, I am talking about the lugs at the ends of the frames, they normally sit on runners maintaining a gap under them and minimising the lug contact area and thus easing frame removal, if you have no runners may i suggest next time you inpect you put a thin layer of vaseline along each side or it will be the devils own job to move those frames next spring.

 

[kazmcc]

Kaz
You are not with me, frame spacing is hoffman,that is the gap between each frame allowing bee space, I am talking about the lugs at the ends of the frames, they normally sit on runners maintaining a gap under them and minimising the lug contact area and thus easing frame removal, if you have no runners may i suggest next time you inpect you put a thin layer of vaseline along each side or it will be the devils own job to move those frames next spring.

lol, thanks beebreeder. i have a useless memory. It must be locked up there somewhere, it's just retreiving it

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a go certainly. That's the problem with the way I've fallen into bee keeping. I had no intention of having anything to do with them, but got hooked after being coaxed into a first visit. The problem with that is I haven't seen a lot of the equipment you can use. I think I know what you are talking about now ( I think lol ) I do know it is a basic hive, and is meant as a temporary home for the bees while the proper one is adapted. I thought we'd have the proper hive for them to over winter in, but it doesn't seem to be going that way. I am a bit worried about how warm they will be able to keep it. Do you think it will be ok? I don't know much about wood....yet lol.

 

[Lois]

Great pics Karen. I agree with the tip on tucking your sleeves in the gloves, I also tuck my 2 pairs of trousers in my pink and flowery wellie boots.

 

[RoofTops]

Yes, good piccys but if I may make a suggestion, avoid holding the frames horizontally unless you are directly over the hive and very close to it. If the queen is on the underside of the frame she can fall or get knocked off and land on the ground unnoticed. This is not a good thing.

 

[Juststarting]

Great Pics - I love they way your keeping us all updated - it feels like beekeeping by proxy!

Keep it up I cant wait to see how things develop.

 

[beebreeder]

No problem with them keeping warm if they are strong enough, i overwintered nucs last year in 12mm ply boxes , snow and all

 

[blackbrood]

great piccies, thanks for sharing

 

[kazmcc]

I am aware of holding the frames upright and kept over the hive, but a few of our group still take them to one side where the light is better and wave them about. Our mentors eyes aren't great either lol, so he tends to turn them. I'm sure he knows what he's doing though. As they get pulled out we check if the queen is there. She is always visable thankfully. Thanks for the reminder though, as we are going alone on Weds, and one of our group is quite heavy handed.

I am reading about not rolling the bees ( Hoopers lol, ), nobody mentioned this to me before and I am a bit worried about doing this. I intend to take out one of the undrawn frames to give us more space. We have been told only to do the super, but as we haven't got a QE in, we have brood there. I am going to put my bossy head on and keep a very close eye on how things are done. The worrying thing is that I am the most experienced of our group....yikes!! Our mentor told the whole group last week that we could inspect on our own without him if we like. I feel none of us are ready yet, and would like to leave it longer, but everyone got all excited and Wed has now been planned. Fingers crossed

They are great pics though. I am so pleased with the bees, even to my inexperienced eye they look well. They are a great colony to work with and learn from. The kids will love them I'm sure. School begins again tomorrow and the bees weren't there when school broke up. The hive can be seen from the school playground so I will take a few to point it out. I can't wait. We won't be going into the site though yet. I don't know how that will be worked.