From: ddhess@bellsouth.net
Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2001 14:38:35 -0000
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: hive update and more pics

I checked on the drone-producing langstroth hive I tried giving a new
queen to and sure enough, no worker brood, still a smattering of drone
brood. So next chance I get I'll be dumping them in the field and
letting the workers serve my other hives. They have some honey stores
so I might scrape-and-strain some of that to give to the guy who's
letting me use his land, let the bees clean up the rest. My top bar
hives are still doing quite well. I went ahead and installed 1/4"
mesh floors. It won't be small enough to keep bees out who want to
squeeze through, but watching the bees for a while it looked like they
weren't much inclined to do so. We took some more pics and I scanned
a few of them (there were a couple of problems with lighting but they
came out mostly ok). Since we're interested in working with bees'
natural tendancied, I thought some of you who hadn't had the
opportunity to see natural colonies or top bar hives might be
interested.

My daughter (again), trying for poster-child for the Eastern
Apicultural Society:
http://personal.bna.bellsouth.net/~ddhess/BeeGirl.jpg

The next 4 are of my top bar hives. The first one is me pulling a
couple of the wine-cork entrance reducers. Second shows the inside of
the hive with the back part openned up, the others are progressively
closer. I just wish they gave a better sense of the depth.
http://personal.bna.bellsouth.net/~ddhess/Bees-TBH-1.jpg
http://personal.bna.bellsouth.net/~ddhess/Bees-TBH-2.jpg
http://personal.bna.bellsouth.net/~ddhess/Bees-TBH-3.jpg
http://personal.bna.bellsouth.net/~ddhess/Bees-TBH-4.jpg

-Don