Saturday 31 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Temperatures today were up to 10°C shortly after midday, the clouds were pregnant with waterdroplets and showed signs of giving birth momentarily.  As a result the activity near the hive was less than on a sunny day with the same temperatures.  I did not see any pollen being brought in, but then again, I didn't hang around the hive very long.

Today I tested a method of melting foundation into frames.  The garage across my place gave me an old car battery and I put it on a trickle charger last night.  I have now tinkered a bit with electric wiring, clips and tape.  Hooked up the clips to the battery on one end and a frame with foundation resting on top on the other end so the current passes through the foundation wiring and heats up.
It worked beautifully!  As I was charging my phone I didn't take any pictures. Might do so in the future since I only used one sheet of foundation to complete my testrun.  I cut it into 2 pieces for my first try and the remaining half got devided by 2 again for run 2 and 3.  The result was good enough for me.  We'll have to see if the bees like it or not.  I did hang the 3 frames with starter strips in the brood box I'll be moving my bees in.

Bob Out