I bought a hive last year from a lady that thought she wanted to get into beekeeping, but changed her mind for one reason or another.
I believe she got her hive in the spring of 2014, and didn't do much with it. I purchased her hive and equipment in the summer of last year (2015).
When I opened the hive for the first time, I found out she had removed some frames and for whatever reason (she was scared??) she didn't put them all back in.
My hive has survived this winter, and I checked them out today. They seem to be doing well, although it is hard to tell since the frames are all glued into the hive and I don't want to attempt to pull out the frames and risk damaging their home.
Here's a picture I took today:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/7v3aq0r2n553odm/AADPr3Dp1eWCpfWuEgG7W80Wa
I've started a blog for bee record keeping purposes, and put more pictures I took today there: jasonsbees.blogspot.com
I am a novice beekeeper, but I think I have a plan and would like some feedback.
1) add a new deep (box B) on top of the current deep (box A)
2) let the girls build up the new hive body
3) add another super (box C) when box B is built up, but move box A to the top and B to the bottom so I would have (from Top to Bottom): A, C, B
The goal here is to end up with the messy hive box on top with only honey in it. I can then take it off the hive, move it to my shed and attempt to salvage what I can out of there. I figure I can probably get a couple of frames of honey out of it that can be put back into the hive, but that might be optimistic as the frames are randomly spaced out. I might be going about this all wrong, which is why I am asking for some advice!
I would appreciate advice with reasoning behind it (IE, try doing X because of Y) so I can better understand what I am doing.
Thanks very much!
I believe she got her hive in the spring of 2014, and didn't do much with it. I purchased her hive and equipment in the summer of last year (2015).
When I opened the hive for the first time, I found out she had removed some frames and for whatever reason (she was scared??) she didn't put them all back in.
My hive has survived this winter, and I checked them out today. They seem to be doing well, although it is hard to tell since the frames are all glued into the hive and I don't want to attempt to pull out the frames and risk damaging their home.
Here's a picture I took today:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/7v3aq0r2n553odm/AADPr3Dp1eWCpfWuEgG7W80Wa
I've started a blog for bee record keeping purposes, and put more pictures I took today there: jasonsbees.blogspot.com
I am a novice beekeeper, but I think I have a plan and would like some feedback.
1) add a new deep (box B) on top of the current deep (box A)
2) let the girls build up the new hive body
3) add another super (box C) when box B is built up, but move box A to the top and B to the bottom so I would have (from Top to Bottom): A, C, B
The goal here is to end up with the messy hive box on top with only honey in it. I can then take it off the hive, move it to my shed and attempt to salvage what I can out of there. I figure I can probably get a couple of frames of honey out of it that can be put back into the hive, but that might be optimistic as the frames are randomly spaced out. I might be going about this all wrong, which is why I am asking for some advice!
I would appreciate advice with reasoning behind it (IE, try doing X because of Y) so I can better understand what I am doing.
Thanks very much!