bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Definitely going to have a couple of these on hand. Thanks for the tip! (And the screen tip, too.)
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Definitely going to have a couple of these on hand. Thanks for the tip! (And the screen tip, too.)
Oh, and the existing holes that are in the right-angle drywall protectors serve as ventilation holes but the bees can't go through them - at least not the kind he gave me.
GasDoc
Member
Anyone here keeping bees foundationless?
I'm thinking about going this way for my second brood box and honey supers. I'll glue a tongue depressor in the upper grooves of my frames to give the bees a starting point.
Makes me wonder if I should add the second brood box below the first one so the bees will start building from the tops of the frames.
I'm thinking about going this way for my second brood box and honey supers. I'll glue a tongue depressor in the upper grooves of my frames to give the bees a starting point.
Makes me wonder if I should add the second brood box below the first one so the bees will start building from the tops of the frames.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
I've just started introducing some foundationless frames in both brood boxes and honey supers.
In the 10-frame honey super, I've (so far) interspersed 3 foundationless between frames with either capped or almost capped honey. They all have drawn comb on them just a week later & when I looked today, two of the three had honey in some of the cells.
In the brood box, kind of the same thing - removed two empty outer frames in a box & then moved some honey/pollen frames towards the outside, putting two foundationless in between brood frames.
So like this (E-empty, H-brood honey, P-pollen, B-brood, X-foundationless):
It was: E-H-HP-HP-B-B-HP-HP-H-E
Now: H-HP-HP-X-B-B-X-HP-HP-H
There is drawn comb on both of those as of now, not sure if they will get brood or pollen. Or both.
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Next step will just be to slowly convert the honey super over to foundationless - each time I pull a frame of capped honey, I'll rearrange to add a foundationless frame.
I'm not going to mess with the brood box anymore - and will wait till next spring when presumably I will have more empty frames to play with.
I've tried it. My experience has been that your hives really need to be level - side to side, front to back - or you could end up with cross-comb. I had a horrible go with it last year because the bees were building in every direction but straight. Bonnie's approach will help because they have existing comb as guides.
I don't have a problem with plastic foundation, it makes honey extraction more repeatable (you don't end up with deep comb on one side and some really shallow comb on the other), nor wax foundation when I use them with my Ross Rounds supers.
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How do you handle swarming? Do you just let them? Or do you employ any strategies?
In my case, I usually have 3-4 frames of brood. Usually, now or within the next 2 weeks, I'll break open the brood chamber, knock off all the queen cells and put my end frames between the brood frames to give them more space to work.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
I did pull my end frames (the E's in the example) and then made space for the foundationless on either side of the brood. Plus since I'm running two deeps on that hive for the brood, I did similar above (but a little different). I still put foundationless in the 2nd brood, but not directly above the other foundationless. So it probably feels somewhat empty to them in there. I hope. I just wanted to make sure the queen had somewhere to put her eggs, hence my slow approach to switching over.
And emergency swarm measure - this year I put up a swarm box, with lure, about 60 yards away. They pass it a lot on flights, so my fingers are crossed that if I miss a swarm (only likely this year with the one 10 frame), they'll choose that & I can reintroduce them back into the hive at some point.
Earlier this week I added a Hoggs Halfcomb on top of the honey super (super is filling fast) & they're all over it as of yesterday ... but I don't yet see any real comb building up for all the activity in the box. The honey super has two fully capped frames, just beautiful, and several more in progress.
I want to get to fully foundationless in the super because I don't want to deal with extraction every time - just cutting the comb out would be lovely sometimes. And going slowly foundationless in the brood box as the start to a more natural mite control, with the different size cells.
And yes, I worried a bit about the comb. The hives are level side to side, but slight slope from front to back. So far, the comb is straight. I'm just keeping a close eye on them until it is fully attached.
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Honeybee population (and honey) are likely to be impacted by the drought situation here. Not as many wild flowers, some farmers cutting back on crops. So my first goal is just getting all the girls through the drought, healthy. Honey will be a bonus. And I'm upping my 'flower to vegetable' ratio in the garden.
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All my hives are foundationless. As FlasherZ mentioned you have to make sure the hive is level. I only worry about side to side, so they end on the same frame they start. I use either Popsicle sticks or frames a local guy makes so there is a clear straight edge for the bees to festoon from. When I first started I put a single frame with foundation in to serve as a ladder and to help the bees know which direction to build, but I no longer worry about it. They do just fine without it.
I use all medium boxes, as medium foundationless frames have less of a risk to blowout. You also can't extract brand new comb. The wax needs to age a little. Once it's yellow instead of white you are fine.
Early on I had issues with the comb curling at the ends, because I didn't put Popsicle sticks to the end of my frames. Other than that I've had no issues with the comb placement.
End result is lots of this:
Half Dollar Bill
Traveller, teacher, poet, accountant, innkeeper
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Looks promising. Thanks for sharing.
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What a beautiful sight.
I went through my hives today, knocking off the queen cells and opening up the brood chambers.
I also took the time to seal up hive number 1, my feral bees that - while producing stunning amounts of honey - are the angriest bees that I've ever seen. After working them today, I finally declared defeat against them as they're too hard to work as they formed a 500+ strong cloud about my head. So I duct-taped the entrance shut, put straps around them to hold them tight, and took the hive to my other bee yard. I managed to do that without any stings, which is just amazing consider I usually get nailed once or twice through my sleeves.
Meanwhile, I picked up two fresh grafted queen cells from a fellow local beekeeper. The reason I moved that hive to my other bee yard is that I don't want its drones flying around to mate with the virgin queens that I'll see soon. I got home just a bit too late, mounted the two cells into a frame in a new hive, and I performed a split, pulling two frames from my most docile hive. Apparently, in Webster's dictionary, docile has an extra definition, meaning "most likely to sting after 7 pm" when it comes to bees. 3 times in each elbow (through my sleeves just above the glove elastic), one through my gloves, one through my veil into my neck, and one through my bee pants and jeans - a total of 9 stings.
Blech. Adrenaline is buzzing through me right now.
I also took the time to seal up hive number 1, my feral bees that - while producing stunning amounts of honey - are the angriest bees that I've ever seen. After working them today, I finally declared defeat against them as they're too hard to work as they formed a 500+ strong cloud about my head. So I duct-taped the entrance shut, put straps around them to hold them tight, and took the hive to my other bee yard. I managed to do that without any stings, which is just amazing consider I usually get nailed once or twice through my sleeves.
Meanwhile, I picked up two fresh grafted queen cells from a fellow local beekeeper. The reason I moved that hive to my other bee yard is that I don't want its drones flying around to mate with the virgin queens that I'll see soon. I got home just a bit too late, mounted the two cells into a frame in a new hive, and I performed a split, pulling two frames from my most docile hive. Apparently, in Webster's dictionary, docile has an extra definition, meaning "most likely to sting after 7 pm" when it comes to bees. 3 times in each elbow (through my sleeves just above the glove elastic), one through my gloves, one through my veil into my neck, and one through my bee pants and jeans - a total of 9 stings.
Blech. Adrenaline is buzzing through me right now.
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bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
A lot accomplished today ... sorry about the stings, though.
I haven't been stung yet this year (knock on wood). Well, not completely true. I did find a stinger in a nitrile glove, but it didn't make it all the way through. RIP little bee.
My bees are pretty docile - meaning if I work the hive from behind, they don't much notice me. I only use smoke when doing a full inspection.
I haven't been stung yet this year (knock on wood). Well, not completely true. I did find a stinger in a nitrile glove, but it didn't make it all the way through. RIP little bee.
My bees are pretty docile - meaning if I work the hive from behind, they don't much notice me. I only use smoke when doing a full inspection.
The hive that got me - #5 - are the most docile bees I have. I can open and work the hive without gloves most of the time, but tonight they weren't happy.
Wow, it seems I really, really made them angry. I approached the bee yard from the very edge, to the very back, and then came up to the hive from behind. I arrived bearing gifts, 2 gallons of thick sugar syrup for the bees to drink up. I didn't get but 30 feet from the hive before I had 10-20 guards already bouncing off my hood. I'm glad I wore full battle gear for the return visit.
Normally, I would have waited a couple of days or three before going near them again, but they needed the syrup. I made a 3-frame split from an existing hive.
Normally, I would have waited a couple of days or three before going near them again, but they needed the syrup. I made a 3-frame split from an existing hive.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Mine are cranky, too! The whole robbing thing started back up, getting serious ... so I took advice and in addition to the severely reduced entrance, I wrapped wet sheets around the hives getting robbed. All good so far.
But then I opened up the strongest hive (seems to be the culprit here) so there were a lot of openings to defend - trying to keep them occupied closer to home. And they are MAD. Three followed me all the way back to the house (two acres from the hives), bouncing off my hood. I sat outside on the back deck in my jacket, gloves, and hood patiently waiting them out. (They didn't figure out that I had exposed skin from the knees down, tg.) I'm not going back there without full body armor.
But then I opened up the strongest hive (seems to be the culprit here) so there were a lot of openings to defend - trying to keep them occupied closer to home. And they are MAD. Three followed me all the way back to the house (two acres from the hives), bouncing off my hood. I sat outside on the back deck in my jacket, gloves, and hood patiently waiting them out. (They didn't figure out that I had exposed skin from the knees down, tg.) I'm not going back there without full body armor.
rolosrevenge
Dr. EVS
Picked up 5 packages today and got 2 swarm calls... one was at the same place from which I had a swarm last year, they were really good producers and docile - so I was happy!
Love those free bees, especially when they're only 8 feet in the air. That's about a 2 1/2 to 3 lb swarm.
Love those free bees, especially when they're only 8 feet in the air. That's about a 2 1/2 to 3 lb swarm.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
It looks like interspersing foundationless with my existing frames is working out great ... no burr comb built up anywhere & both brood box and honey super getting built out quickly.
Nice. Beautiful comb and light brood as well!
In the past 2 days, 4 swarm calls, in addition to installing 7 packages over the weekend. I have a feeling this is going to be a big, big honey year - and a big swarming year.
In the past 2 days, 4 swarm calls, in addition to installing 7 packages over the weekend. I have a feeling this is going to be a big, big honey year - and a big swarming year.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Lucky you! I don't have high hopes for a large honey harvest - with the drought, there are less wildflowers and less farmers planting. Greatly reduced forage for the bees. So I'm more focused on building healthy brood w/enough honey to tide them over to next year. (One of the reasons I'm slowly introducing foundationless frames - varroa are said not to thrive in the larger brood cells.) And I'm also planting more and more wildflowers around the creeks and pond. Anything to help them.
Anything above and beyond what the bees need to get to next summer is a bonus.
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