No classic input this time with temperatures, activity near the hive or info about pollen color being brought in. No app recording, no video.
Today I'm setting up a step by step guide for moving the bees into my hive.
The Plan:
Before I move the bees into a wider hive I'll need to install my hive project first into place, hence:
Step one: Finish the outer cover of my hive project.
Step two: Move the uninhabited hives out of the way so I can place the long hive.
Step three: Place the long hive.
There, three steps I need to do before starting on the actual move.
Step four: get your tools ready:
- Hive tools
- Smoker
- goose feather
- 6 top bars
- Straps to fix the simplex frames on the top bars
- bee-suit and gloves
- knife and foodpacks
- Queen clip
- camera gear to film the experience
- Populated Beehive (simplex nucleus)
- Something to close off the nucleus with (piece of foam)
- Unpopulated beehive (3 boxes with at least 24 frames ready to go)
- Take your frame-plan (it's in my head really but I wanted to put it up here so... My frame plan is how I want to put the simplex frames (SF with E for empty - don't expect that - F for Nectar and pollen but no brood - B for brood - C for only comb - don't expect this either) into my hive mixed up with my Empty Zander Frame (ZFE).
The plan looks a little like this:
B1 : ZFE
B2 : SFF
B3: ZFE
B4: SFB
B5: SFB
B6: SFB
B7: SFB
B8: ZFE
B9: SFF
B10: ZFE
Of course I can't be sure there will be 4 frames of brood and 2 frames of food, but this is the basic plan. On a side note: 3 of my ZFE's already have a starterstrip of wax foundation in them. The fourth has nothing, I hope they don't get wild in the wax building. - B1 through B10 stand for 'Bottombox places 1 through 10 starting from the left as you would read)
Step Five: Set up the Camera
Step Six: With the tools at hand and the hive stand (a pallet) cleared move the populated beehive away from it's current location and replace it with the bottom box (empty frames close by). Keep the populated hive withing working distance.
Step Seven: open up the unpopulated Hive and get ready to fix the top bars onto the simplex frames.
Step Eight: Open up the populated Hive after smoking the enterance a bit and smoke over the top of the box.
Step Nine: Once the bees are down scrape off burr comb of the top of the simplex frames.
Step ten: check if you can get all 6 frames loose but don't remove them yet.
Step eleven: fix the top bars onto the simplex frames without removing the frames from the box entirely - should this not work move them as soon as they're fixed into the new box.
Step twelve: If it does work start with taking the second frame from one side and check it. Note what you see and hang it in the unpopulated hive. What to look for?
- What is in the frame: eggs, open brood, closed brood, nectar, pollen, a mixture, varroa, anything else you see?
- What is on the frame: Nurse bees? The queen? Drones? Varroa? Anything else?
- What is happening on the frame? Are the bees calm and staying on it / did they not enjoy being moved?
- General thoughts afterwards.
Do this and move the frames into the unpopulated hive with the frame plan in mind.
Step thirteen: Suppose the frames were packed and you have at least 3 frames of food, (B7 would be SFF instead of SFB) Then we substitute the planned B6 SFB with a ZFE and move the planned SFB on B6 to B7. The third SFF then goes into the super we put on top of the bottom box. This super is filled with ZFE's appart from S6 (Super frame space 6) where you hang the third frame of food. The boxes should look like this:
B1 : ZFE S1: ZFE
B2 : SFF S2: ZFE
B3: ZFE S3: ZFE
B4: SFB S4: ZFE
B5: SFB S5: ZFE
B6: ZFE S6: SFF
B7: SFB S7: ZFE
B8: ZFE S8: ZFE
B9: SFF S9: ZFE
B10: ZFE S10: ZFE
Step fourteen: dump any leftover bees remaining from the simplex nucleus (populated hive) into the top box (be it the bottom one or the super) then close up the hive ASAP.
Step Fifteen: remove the now unpopulated simplex and close it up so no bees can get in.
Step Sixteen: if the bees are still calm then put the apiary in order: place the empty hive boxes where they should be in the future if populated. (as to not confuse the bees too much with changing enviroments. If you are stung like a pincushion best to leave the apiary and wait an hour or so before coming back to fix this.
You're done.
What can go wrong?
1) Bees go wild.
First a general tip: if needed smoke over the hive in between, stay calm and work fast. If the bees still go wild and you don't trust it. Close up the hive 'as is' as good as you can and leave if you need to.
2) You kill the queen.
Hopefully you still have some 1 day old larvae and eggs in there to allow the bees to make a new queen. -> this needs to be looked at! If that doesn't work, merge a second colonie or put in a new queen whatever you can get ASAP.
3) I spot a disease.
You know what it is: close the hive and prep to do whatever you deem is needed.
You don't know what it is: report your findings to the club, have somebody come in to take a look. Do some research based on your findings.
You don't know what it is: report your findings to the club, have somebody come in to take a look. Do some research based on your findings.
4) I spot swarmcells
Do your utmost best to find the queen and cage her. Fill the planned bottom box with ZFE's except 2 in places B5 and B7. Put one SFF with closed brood only or food into the hive MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY QUEEN CELLS ON THERE and release the queen in that hive. Put an excluder with feeding hole on that box open a food pack an put it on top of the hole. Close it with a super.
Now move the other frames from the nucleus in a new bottom, At least 2 frames of brood next to eachother in B5 and B6, ZFE's in B2, B4 B7 and B9, remaining SF's in B3 and B8. I'll leave it up to you if you put filler frames in B1 and 10 or ZFE's. Close of with a foodpack like above and a super.
If you cannot locate the queen close up and try again in an hour.
If you cannot locate the queen close up and try again in an hour.
That's it for now, might come back and change this document a bit untill I actually do it.
Bob Out
