I got all my answers here and at the BeeSource.com forum. What is this strange cell sctructure recorded on June 18, 2011? It is full of larvae. Pulled it from the Upper Deep frame 2.
Cross comb on one of the frames. This was removed after I got some advice.
Here it is during inspection#7 recorded on June 26, 2011. Larvae are capped over. All looks well throughout the hive. Lots of brood, honey, larvae and eggs. Nice patterns throughout. That means the queen was present and healthy at least 2 to 3 days ago. The sugar water-Honey B Helathy mix needs to be replinished 6-28-11. Bring 2 bottles. Video and more pics coming soon.
Other questions to answer as I head off for inspection #7 :
- I’m using 2 Deep hive bodies with (8) – 9 1/8 inch frames. Once these both meet the 70% full ratio can I add the queen excluder and a honey super?
- Do I need another hive body beside the two honey supers I have now?
- How is my queen doing?
- Video for inspection #6 has to be published and I’m going out to record for inspection #7
To answer your questions:
1) This is bridge or brace or crosscomb. The bees don’t always like plastic comb and do this. Just scrape it off down to the plastic and maybe they will build it right the next time. Keep scraping it off until they get it right.
2) Don’t add a queen excluder if you are using undrawn frames. Let them go up and start drawing out before/if you use a queen excluder. A band of honey on the top of the frames is a natural queen excluder.
3) “Do I need another hive body beside the two honey supers I have now?” I don’t understand this question. Are you calling the 2 deep brood boxes honey supers or do you have 2 honey supers as well as the brood boxes? You will need honey supers next year, maybe this year.
4) Your queen is doing great, solid pattern, no holes.
I would suggest you stop feeding your bees, they have enough feed if they are capping it. Also move the undrawn frames in from the outside closer to the brood to get them drawn faster.
Take off your gloves, you need to be stung at least once a month to build immunity. Yes it hurts but it is part of beekeeping.
You don’t need to take out every frame when doing an inspection. Look for eggs to be sure you have a queen, see that there is enough room for her to lay and for storage of honey, tip the 2 brood box up and look for queen cells and keep an eye on the number of queen cups and close it up.
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John,
thank you for your comments. I was also posting on the BeeSource forum and took some advice from there. On July 1 I removed the cell structure which was full of drone larvae. I brought the mess in the house for a closer view and sure enough it was an anomoly that did need correction. I scraped off the line of cells to the foundation with hope that workers will attempt to draw new comb.
Question 3 referred to the two – 8 – frame deeps I have to support the colony. I was wondering if I needed a third before I added honey supers if I add them at all. I’ve determined I don’t need a third deep even though the hive is of the 8 frame model.
I have beeswax coated crimped wire foundation for the honey supers. If I add them I may just add without the excluder as I don’t plan to harvest for myself this year.
Gloves will be off the next time I check. Thanks for the motivation.
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