Hi all, i'm new to beekeeping - just got the hive a few weeks ago. Been reading around in here and it's been very helpful.
Just to be clear, i am not really trying to maximize honey production, but i would like some. Mostly want to keep them around for pollinating my many fruit trees and do what i can to help the other trees in the neighborhood out. Keeping them healthy with a minimum of required maintenance is my main goal. I may check in on them for fun, but i don't want to have to
I'm not planning on getting any honey this year, though i may steal a tiny bit.
The bees are 'new world carniolans', but are from a split of another hive, so could be mutts. Depends where the drone(s) came from. The split was made earlier this year, so it's a first year colony.
Anyhow, the hive consists of a hive body and one medium super right now, all 10 frame. They seem mostly full, the outer sides of the outermost frames in the hive body were pretty empty, and there were a couple of frames in the super which were just being built out.
I'd say 4 frames of capped honey in the super, 3 or 4 with mostly brood, and maybe a frame's worth of uncapped honey in the hive body. I didn't get to the last 4 frames or so in the hive body cause they were starting to get agitated, but it seemed like it was just as full as the side i did look at.. there were plenty of uncapped brood, so i'm pretty sure the queen made it through OK.
My main goals:
* learn more about bees
* convert to foundationless frames
* start up a top-bar hive (Tanzanian, based on medium super frame size) next year.
OK some questions:
* i feel like it's full enough to super, so i was going to try that. when i super, i'd like to put top bars in. maybe put one normal frame as a ladder? any advice?
* How can i tell if they are getting a good amount of nectar? There's a lot of talk about the 'nectar flows', but not a lot of advice about how to determine if you're in one. I see some bees coming in with pollen (but mostly without). They were moved here from about 50 miles away and i'm hoping the forage is better here (the guy who sold me the hive said he thought it would be), but want some tips on how to tell.
* is there a howto or guide for converting to foundationless? I'd like to move to that in this hive and get a head start on top-bar for next year. Any tips with that in mind? I'd like to avoid feeding them sugar. I hear it takes a few generations to get them back to 'natural' cell size, which i suppose is my goal.
For now i just have the one hive, so not a lot of options for moving stuff around, and i don't want to take too many risks
During my first inspection, I pulled one of the frames out of the super which was maybe 30% built out and replaced it with a top-bar piece. Hopefully they will build it out and put brood in it... i really want some pre-made top bars (with brood) for staring my top-bar-hive next year. The frame i pulled had a big piece of comb coming out sideways with some brood in it, so hopefully they will use it. I suppose since i'll be making it the same basic size as a medium, i can just steal those frames, but i'd rather go fully top bar.
thanks!
-tmk
Just to be clear, i am not really trying to maximize honey production, but i would like some. Mostly want to keep them around for pollinating my many fruit trees and do what i can to help the other trees in the neighborhood out. Keeping them healthy with a minimum of required maintenance is my main goal. I may check in on them for fun, but i don't want to have to
I'm not planning on getting any honey this year, though i may steal a tiny bit.The bees are 'new world carniolans', but are from a split of another hive, so could be mutts. Depends where the drone(s) came from. The split was made earlier this year, so it's a first year colony.
Anyhow, the hive consists of a hive body and one medium super right now, all 10 frame. They seem mostly full, the outer sides of the outermost frames in the hive body were pretty empty, and there were a couple of frames in the super which were just being built out.
I'd say 4 frames of capped honey in the super, 3 or 4 with mostly brood, and maybe a frame's worth of uncapped honey in the hive body. I didn't get to the last 4 frames or so in the hive body cause they were starting to get agitated, but it seemed like it was just as full as the side i did look at.. there were plenty of uncapped brood, so i'm pretty sure the queen made it through OK.
My main goals:
* learn more about bees
* convert to foundationless frames
* start up a top-bar hive (Tanzanian, based on medium super frame size) next year.
OK some questions:
* i feel like it's full enough to super, so i was going to try that. when i super, i'd like to put top bars in. maybe put one normal frame as a ladder? any advice?
* How can i tell if they are getting a good amount of nectar? There's a lot of talk about the 'nectar flows', but not a lot of advice about how to determine if you're in one. I see some bees coming in with pollen (but mostly without). They were moved here from about 50 miles away and i'm hoping the forage is better here (the guy who sold me the hive said he thought it would be), but want some tips on how to tell.
* is there a howto or guide for converting to foundationless? I'd like to move to that in this hive and get a head start on top-bar for next year. Any tips with that in mind? I'd like to avoid feeding them sugar. I hear it takes a few generations to get them back to 'natural' cell size, which i suppose is my goal.
For now i just have the one hive, so not a lot of options for moving stuff around, and i don't want to take too many risks
During my first inspection, I pulled one of the frames out of the super which was maybe 30% built out and replaced it with a top-bar piece. Hopefully they will build it out and put brood in it... i really want some pre-made top bars (with brood) for staring my top-bar-hive next year. The frame i pulled had a big piece of comb coming out sideways with some brood in it, so hopefully they will use it. I suppose since i'll be making it the same basic size as a medium, i can just steal those frames, but i'd rather go fully top bar.
thanks!
-tmk
