8-26-11 Hive Check and foundation height increase

With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the east coast, it looked like we should try to make sure the bees didn't get flooded out.  So, we went down to do some work at Beachland and get the bees battened down.  We added several cinder blocks under the hive bottom to raise it up from about 6 inches more than it was before.  We also added a couple cinder blocks on top of the hive to keep it from blowing away.  We added more sugar syrup in the new feeder.  They went through almost a gallon in one day!  The good news is that they are drawing out comb in the top deep hive body like crazy.  Almost two new frames of drawn comb in a week.  They're really going to town.  Didn't have time for pictures this go around.

8-20-11 Hive Check

The bees had done a fair amount of work on both the 2nd and 8th frames... So instead of taking a chance on a swarm, I thought it made sense to go ahead and add the second set of 10 frames.  This seemed like a good time to add the new hive top feeder from Brushy Mountain.  It will hold LOTS more sugar syrup and should be easier to work with than the other feeders.  Also, I completely removed the entrance reducer.  Arguably, I should have done this much sooner.  Below are some pix of the new feeder, etc.

8-5-2011 Another check of the hive

The new feeder is working ok... but still leaves something to be desired.  The idea with this one was to have more sugar water available and the trough would allow more bees to get access to the food.  But, the feeder trough fills up and tends to spill out when moved.  I'll probably get one of the box type hive top feeders.  Anyway, the hive is still doing well.  The bees are almost done with one side of the frame #2 and just starting a little corner of frame #8.  Frames #1 and 10 are still untouched.  The books say to add the second deep hive body after the 7th frame is fully drawn out. Will have to keep a close eye on this.

See the   VIDEO

Note that the queen was on the third frame.  Ironically, she's crawling across the frame laying eggs just as I'm saying "I didn't check this frame".