This is my first year of beekeeping and I need some advices. I started from scratch, no foundation built whatsoever.
Personally, up until now, I was VERY EXCITED about this new hobby/side line/wanna be a semi-commercial if possible. So far as a new beekeeper, my inspections were going flawlessly up until today... I'm still excited but I got a very bad experience and I felt like ****.
FYI: I bought 2 nucs in june and I was focusing to reproduce bees and split, honey was NOT important for me this year.
But today, I did a throughout inspection of both hives. Each nucs now became 2 deep brood boxes (10 frames full of bees) and 1 empty deep super (combs barely started in the super).
Today I realized the WEIGHT of the boxes (OH , my GOD) this is SOOO heavy. I'm 330, 6 feet and I have shoulders bigger than a door frame. That being said, I'm pretty new with EVERYTHING. But to me, killing a bee is one too many. In my head I'm like there is no way I can inspect without killing so many bees and I wish I could be more delicate but I find it VERY difficult to do so. Although I want to be SUPER gentle with them, they are putting comb everywhere and sticking everything together so I feel like I'm invading their nest A LOT even though I want to be as gentle as possible. To me, this felt almost like a bear tearing up the whole place. It looked impossible for me to NOT crush so many of them, I'm ALWAYS scared to kill my queen when squeezing the frames together, when I'm stacking boxes one over the other and when I put my boxes over my top cover to inspect the bottom box.
So here's what I did : I did my inspection from top to bottom. Took the super off immediately without even looking because I couldn't see any comb (barely started). Then, I inspected the first brood box, and when I was done, I put the brood box on top of my super already sitting on my top cover. Then I checked the bottom brood box completely. Thing is, I couldn't find the queen at ALL in my last 2 inspections, although I checked the 20 frames of brood in each hive. Before, I was able to find them without ANY problem, but now it's like a mystery I can't solve... I was able to find eggs, so I'm not too worried but I'm still ALWAYS worried until I don't clearly identify where she's at. I wish I could just cage her and keep moving with my inspection and relax while I'm doing this.
That being said, when I tried to put back everything together, they were ALL around the place, they were like an ice cream cone melting on the side of the cone. When putting the hive back together, even though I was smoking a lot to clear the top area to put the 2nd brood box back in place, they were immediately back laying around the edges of my bottom box. I tried to do it quick but once I lifted the 2nd brood box it was SOOOO F. heavy I had no choice to put it back on so many bees and resulting of smashing bees again.
Also, it's taking me forever to inspect only 2 hives I can't imagine having like 40 of them right now to be honest.
I feel like ****, I feel like I lost a bit of my orientation while I was inspecting the hives, this felt so overwhelming after the inspection although I felt very confident up until now. I felt discouraged and I wish I would have been better to find my queen and not stress so bad to kill my queen and bees during my inspection.
I'm ready to get roasted if you feel the need to. But man, let me know what you guys think, any advice/recommendations/questions...?
Am I the only one to feel like that, am I doing this the wrong way?
Let me know and thank you in advance for those caring to help!
Personally, up until now, I was VERY EXCITED about this new hobby/side line/wanna be a semi-commercial if possible. So far as a new beekeeper, my inspections were going flawlessly up until today... I'm still excited but I got a very bad experience and I felt like ****.
FYI: I bought 2 nucs in june and I was focusing to reproduce bees and split, honey was NOT important for me this year.
But today, I did a throughout inspection of both hives. Each nucs now became 2 deep brood boxes (10 frames full of bees) and 1 empty deep super (combs barely started in the super).
Today I realized the WEIGHT of the boxes (OH , my GOD) this is SOOO heavy. I'm 330, 6 feet and I have shoulders bigger than a door frame. That being said, I'm pretty new with EVERYTHING. But to me, killing a bee is one too many. In my head I'm like there is no way I can inspect without killing so many bees and I wish I could be more delicate but I find it VERY difficult to do so. Although I want to be SUPER gentle with them, they are putting comb everywhere and sticking everything together so I feel like I'm invading their nest A LOT even though I want to be as gentle as possible. To me, this felt almost like a bear tearing up the whole place. It looked impossible for me to NOT crush so many of them, I'm ALWAYS scared to kill my queen when squeezing the frames together, when I'm stacking boxes one over the other and when I put my boxes over my top cover to inspect the bottom box.
So here's what I did : I did my inspection from top to bottom. Took the super off immediately without even looking because I couldn't see any comb (barely started). Then, I inspected the first brood box, and when I was done, I put the brood box on top of my super already sitting on my top cover. Then I checked the bottom brood box completely. Thing is, I couldn't find the queen at ALL in my last 2 inspections, although I checked the 20 frames of brood in each hive. Before, I was able to find them without ANY problem, but now it's like a mystery I can't solve... I was able to find eggs, so I'm not too worried but I'm still ALWAYS worried until I don't clearly identify where she's at. I wish I could just cage her and keep moving with my inspection and relax while I'm doing this.
That being said, when I tried to put back everything together, they were ALL around the place, they were like an ice cream cone melting on the side of the cone. When putting the hive back together, even though I was smoking a lot to clear the top area to put the 2nd brood box back in place, they were immediately back laying around the edges of my bottom box. I tried to do it quick but once I lifted the 2nd brood box it was SOOOO F. heavy I had no choice to put it back on so many bees and resulting of smashing bees again.
I feel like ****, I feel like I lost a bit of my orientation while I was inspecting the hives, this felt so overwhelming after the inspection although I felt very confident up until now. I felt discouraged and I wish I would have been better to find my queen and not stress so bad to kill my queen and bees during my inspection.
I'm ready to get roasted if you feel the need to. But man, let me know what you guys think, any advice/recommendations/questions...?
Am I the only one to feel like that, am I doing this the wrong way?
Let me know and thank you in advance for those caring to help!