So, a couple of hours before I was to pick up my bees I decided to open the hive and get ready for them. I hadn't opened the hive since late last summer when we realized that I didn't have any bees. Anyway I saw a big mess. There was webbing everywhere in the brooders and in general it was a mess. A panic call to my bee guy, who didn't know what I was describing, and I decided to clean out the mess. And clean, and clean. An our after my bee pick-up time I left to go get them (they were an hour away.) After describing to the bee man (where I was picking up my bees) the mess, he said, "Moths. The old wire type frames are especially suseptible, every beekeeper get them sooner or later." And not a surprise since my hive has basically been inactive for almost a year. I had two choices, either I re-wired and waxed the old frames (taking them apart, etc.) or buy new plastic ones. $32.50 later I was done messing with the old frames. Had I known what I was doing I could have saved the hours cleaning the old ones in the first place.
So, a couple of hours before I was to pick up my bees I decided to open the hive and get ready for them. I hadn't opened the hive since late last summer when we realized that I didn't have any bees. Anyway I saw a big mess. There was webbing everywhere in the brooders and in general it was a mess. A panic call to my bee guy, who didn't know what I was describing, and I decided to clean out the mess. And clean, and clean. An our after my bee pick-up time I left to go get them (they were an hour away.) After describing to the bee man (where I was picking up my bees) the mess, he said, "Moths. The old wire type frames are especially suseptible, every beekeeper get them sooner or later." And not a surprise since my hive has basically been inactive for almost a year. I had two choices, either I re-wired and waxed the old frames (taking them apart, etc.) or buy new plastic ones. $32.50 later I was done messing with the old frames. Had I known what I was doing I could have saved the hours cleaning the old ones in the first place. 
Mr. Hughes sells bees and bee equipment out of his garage in suburbia. I wasn't the only one picking up bees last night.
Since I got back after nine last night I 'hived' my bees this morning. After putting in some of the new frames (the old ones are stacked) I removed the feeder can to get to the queen and the rest of the bees. I had sprayed them with sugar water so they were busy cleaning themselves and didn't bother me.
I put the queen in and then the box with the rest. Then put on a feeder tray and closed up the hive. Hiving successful. 
Tomorrow I open the hive and remove the box the bees came in and add more frames. Mondy I open the queen cage and let her free. Honey will be on the way.
1 comment:
are you messing with those bees bare-handed? yikes!
Post a Comment