[Shazam]

So, opened up the hive and did some first housekeeping.

Most of the combs were lovely and straight, but the rear couple seemed to start veering a bit off angle so did a little cut and bend and hopefully they'll get them straight.

Also noticed they had a bit more capped drone that I'd like, which is probably due to the standard tight clustered combs. So I did a mix and match treatment. Scratched some drone that was close to capped worker brood, cut one section of drone that was only surrounded by honey (that I could tell), and spread out the combs by placing empty bars between them.

Did make one flub, apparently when brushing bees off the comb that I was cutting the drone from, I brushed the queen out of the hive. I was wondering why some bees were clustered on the ground near where I'd been working and there was her pretty majesty. So got my first practice of grabbing her by the wings and back in the hive she went.

One nice thing was I also got to taste a hint of the honey from the ruptured nectar cells cut when cutting out the drone. Mm.

Later in the day was driving and passed an apiary and picked up some of their honey after trying some different batches from different locations.

Not a bad day yesterday at all.

 

[Beethinking]

What was the issue with the drone comb?

Matt

 

[Shazam]

Well, too much drone and I'm told they have a tendency to swarm, and its a newly placed hive. I think they all clustered on the first 6 or 7 bars and kept building up the comb on them rather than move deeper into the hive. In turn they felt crowded. So took out a bit of the drone and spread out the combs so they'd keep building worker brood instead. I left some of the drone but definitely seemed they were becoming over the 10-20% given as a tendency.

Just a preventative I suppose. Was I worrying with no cause?

 

[Beethinking]

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much. From what I've seen the drone production varies significantly between hives and I do nothing to adjust it for them. Clearly they are making drones for a reason, and I figure they know better than I do what is best for their hive!

Do, however, continue to ensure that they have enough space in the colony and that they don't get "honey bound."

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Sam-Smith]

I would be careful spacing out a small colony, they can't heat and cool it as well when there is a top bar of empty space between combs, this of course goes for a small hive a big booming one can manage.

 

[Michael Bush]

If you take out drone comb they will simply make more. I would leave it. At most I would move it to the outside edge of the brood nest if you find it in the middle.

 

[Shazam]

I figured if I left some they'd be happy.

I'm not going to pester them again for a bit by opening too soon, but I'll give an update next I check on them. From the window I can see they are busy making new comb in the previously empty top bars I put between existing comb, so that's good as they'd sort of gotten 'stuck' on the comb they'd already made.