Friday, September 2, 2011

Summertime 2


The hive is getting closer to being full of comb now.


Jim is demonstrating the process that we have come up with to expand the hive. If the queen ends up laying eggs in the added super we may try to split the hive. 



I don't even get this kind of pressure at work.







The completed addition.


We thought that the bees were getting ready to swarm because they started hanging (literally) out on the outside of the hive.



Turns out that they just do this in the summer when it gets too hot inside the hive. Some of them hang on the side of the hive to help keep the inside of the hive cooler.


It didn't take them long at all to fill up the rest of the hive with comb. You can see where they made the combs on the right side of the hive much bigger. That is where I spaced the top bars apart so that the bees would have room to go into the super that we put on top of the hive.





Looking through the top cover of the super on top of the hive.


Got stung for the first time a couple of days ago. It had been really hot (around 90 or better) so I had propped the top cover of the super up a little bit thinking that it would let a some of the hot air flow out of the hive. When I went to check on the hive and see what was going on in the super as soon as I lifted the top cover one came out and got me in the hand. Looking back I bet that they were guarding it like it was another entrance to the hive. However, the next time I went to peek in there I did use my smoker and had gloves on just in case. No problems since I stopped propping the cover up though. The next hot spell we had I just left them alone and everything was fine.


Activity in the new addition.



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