Sunday July 17, 2011

Ted and I went into the hives today to take inventory and to make a few changes. One thing that can be done to reduce a mite population is to install a screen bottom board. In theory, the mites can pass through the screen and then they can’t climb back into the hive. I am not sure how affective this is but, it’s minimally invasive and does not use any chemicals or drugs. There are several mite medications that can be applied but I can’t use them during the honey flow or else they can end up in the honey.
We dissembled each hive down to the hive stand and replaced all of the bottom boards with the screen version. These were purchased for about $10.00 each from Sidney General Store which sells bee keeping supplies. Who knew?
We also took out one empty medium honey super for each hive just in case they were ready for more storage room for this year’s crop.
Each honey super has nine frames but, Ted and I had disassembled three of the frames in each super and replaced the old dark comb with plastic foundation. This forces the bees to produce fresh comb which takes longer to fill and is more work for the bees, but is healthier for the hive in the long run. The old comb was thrown into the wax melter for candles and whatnot.
Hive 1 is still lagging some, but we put the second box on any way. This hive still has the queen excluder because the first box is not entirely full and I did not want the queen to pass through into the honey supers.
Hive 2 is going great so we put the fourth honey super on it. There is honey throughout the three boxes already installed but not all of it is capped.
Hive 3 is also strong but not as strong as hive 2. It weighed in at 206 lbs so it is up 14 lbs from last week. We put the empty super on it which added an additional 10 lbs for a total weight of 116 lbs.
Not all of the hives were actually ready for the extra supers that we installed but I took into consideration the fact that the whole field is covered with spotted Knapp weed that is just about to come into bloom.
Spotted Knapp weed is an invasive plant species that is considered a pest but it seems to produce good nectar. Last year the majority of my honey crop was brought in from spotted Knapp weed so I figured that in the next week or so there would be plenty of available nectar and all of the hives have the work force to bring it in.