[SIMON WAKLEY]

I’m a newbie myself but I have hives that have varying degrees of defensiveness and it does depend on many factors but I’d say that if they repeatedly follow you a significant distance from the hive after an inspection then they are unusually defensive. And if they repeatedly bang into your veil while your are inspecting the hive you might want to request and try to get better genetics.

I’m in Glendale and am willing to be a fellow beek and you’re welcome to call and ask questions etc. I don’t think I’d qualify as a mentor!

Simon
310 403 4278. Text is best

[SIMON WAKLEY]

I’m interested. How can I contact you directly.
Simon Wakley

firstnamelastname at
yahoo dot com

or 3IO 4OE 4278 Slightly encrypted. E=3

Simon

[SIMON WAKLEY]

I would like one complete hive, I’d take the used one if needed. What sort of time would you be available for pickup. Evening or weekend?
Simon Wakley You can email me firstnamelastname@yahoo.com

[SIMON WAKLEY]

Hi, I might be interested. Where are you located?
Simon (I’m in Glendale)

[SIMON WAKLEY]

This is what I thought was checkerboarding:
To head off swarming, you need to MOVE UP some brood frames into another deep and put in empties down below. Keep the brood frames in the top box in the middle, together for thermoregulation.

Yes I did say that if there are swarm cells then I am too late and I’d probably better just do a split, but I doubt my ability to find the queen and a walk away split might end up with a swarm anyway. I guess I’ll figure it out tomorrow when I see what I have.

One thing that is quite unsettling for newbies is the wide variance in strongly stated opinion in how to do this. The Localness of bee keeping is such a strong factor that there is no stable information for any scenario and one feels like you have to make it up yourself by trial and error.

Just on foundation alone there seem to be widely varying opinions.
Thanks,

Simon

[SIMON WAKLEY]

Hi,
Sorry for the lack of data. This year colony from a nuc of feral bees from a local beekeeper. Had them about 2 months in Glendale CA. I have a deep brood box and don’t want to add another deep unless I am forced to. I will open the hive tomorrow (last looked 3 weeks ago) and if I see swarm cells – will checkerboard with another deep, if not I will add mediums with guide rails and foundation alternated. If I see swarm cells it may be too late and I will place swarm traps just in case.
The hive is up on a low roof and I can look up into the hive from underneath and I can see the bees all the way across the box in the evening so it’s filled up in the last week – 10 days.
Thanks for all the data, I read a lot of what was on that web site and I like the “lazy Beekeeper” approach as I reckon bees will do it better than me 95% of the time.
I just bought a whole box of medium foundation and I don’t want to have to handle crosswise comb so I will compromise with 50/50 foundation and empty frames.
Best
Simon

[SIMON WAKLEY]

Hi,

I don’t quite follow the stacking you are talking about. The feral comb is often oddly shaped and rarely fits into the deep frames I have that well. I have puzzle pieced the offcuts together so I am not sure what I should or should not be doing.
If I put little pieces in frame, I will use up a LOT of frames and wind up with a lot of empty space – that’s OK?

I do have a 4″ high feeder langstrom frame which I now put some of the old comb into and place that above the brood. I have quite a bit of frozen honey waiting to be fed to my next hive. It’s got to be much better than sugar water.

[SIMON WAKLEY]

Hi,

Glendale, CA.

Thanks to you both for your information. It does seem like there are several way to go bout it, but one of the points I was missing is to keep the comb all oriented the same way, I knew up had to be up, but I was not trying to keep it in order etc. I will try to keep as many bees on the comb as possible.

I was told to put all the hoey on a tray above the brood and the bees would put it back into comb, but that does seem to attract robber bees and you should certainly reduce the opening either way. Most wild bee hives have a TINY opening.

Leaving the bees on Site is also a good tip as I have always moved them and that’s possibly too many changes at one time.

Thanks

Simon

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