Background: I've had my two hives for just a month, I inherited them but the previous owner was seriously ill since last summer, so the hives had been neglected for some time and are looking the worse for it.
My inner heart says be a 'light touch' bk, I've spent a lot of time sitting less than a yard away from the entrances just watching and getting to know them, but I do realise that I need to be aware of what's going on inside the hive as well. I don't know them that well yet, so I plan to leave them plenty of their own stores this first winter.
Saturday - Hive 1.
Checked all the frames and removed brace comb from the top two supers, removed all the nails from the runners and fitted plastic spacers - they were not in exact spacing so making equidistant frames impossible - now I can lift the first frame and slide the others apart - much better.
Checked the few frames that were not braced in the BB, no sign of foul brood or wax moth. (I do realise that not seeing it isn't the same as it not being there!) I didn't want to cut too much into the brood frames, for fear of squidging the queen, and I'd spent a good time already with the hive open so I left the braced comb there intact.
The BB frames look quite old and are very congested with brace comb - the lower super's frames were almost welded to the brood box, it took quite a while to clean up just the two supers.
Given all that I did to them they were quite calm, a bit of a 'hum' when I lifted the lower super and a frame from the brood box lifted and fell back in, but they are really gentle, I didn't need to use much smoke at all.
With this hive, going to leave brood box and a super on for the winter, there was no QX but no sign of brood in the two supers except for a slight darkening of the wax in the middle frames of the lower one. Only two frames of the top super were drawn, As I have to visit the hive a couple more times for the apiguard treatment, I'll consider how I will arrange the supers, I'll probably take the top almost empty one off, and nadir the other.
As we're approaching the 'close season' now I'll plan to do a complete frame and foundation swap of the brood box in the spring.
Finished off by dispensing the first dose of apiguard, and added an eke and a new insulated crown board (both made the day before).
I had also built a "vortex escape" for hive 2 following the plans on Dave Cushman's site. This went on that hive under the top two quite heavy supers which were above a QX covering a brood and a half. Hopefully the escape will work! When I took the second super off, I found that the pierced aluminium QX was split into two pieces ( probably a legacy of all the boxes being different sizes!) so the queen could have gone higher, so putting the escape on, I took the QX off, and finished off with a new insulated crown board (the existing one was in multiple pieces)
Sunday - Hive 2
Even more work on this hive, three supers and a brood box with a queen excluder above the brood +half, planning to extract the top two supers, the top one has just a couple of frames with honey and the next one very full. Took the roof off and ... surprise ... nothing! not a single bee left in the top two supers so very pleased with the vortex design.
Debridged the remaining super, again this hive has a very bridged BB so to minimise damage I turned the brood box so it was on it's side with the frames vertical, and scraped off the comb that was on the frame bottoms. No risk of squishing HM as every frame was welded to the next, they weren't going anywhere!
I then rebuilt the hive with a new bottom entry floor and verroa screen, (using the design in a post referenced recently here a few times), nadired the full super, put the brood box on top, and again finished off with an eke, apiguard and a new top cover.
The ladies were obviously initially confused when the new floor went in, heading for the pheromones escaping from the now leaky join between the new floor and old brood box, but today they're busy foraging and seem to be content and using it well.
Lots still to do, both brood boxes need replacing, the comb looks quite old compared with the supers, the wood is rotting on a couple of bottom edges but I'll leave all that until spring. I may put an external cladding on or put a shelter over the hives to keep the weather off if winter turns very wet or cold. They look healthy enough, I can't see verroa in either hive, not on the bees (I've been up quite close and personal as much as I can) or on the floors, but I haven't been able to inspect cells in the brood frames yet.
It felt like a marathon weekend... but glad I've done it all now as the weather looks better for the next week or so for the apiguard application to take effect.
have put some photos here:
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=669
pity I couldn't have waited a week for the last extraction, but enough is enough.
