June 2008

Nearly up to date!!

The work rate did not really diminish in June - for the bees that is. The weather did interrupt some activities for about a week and I think little was done in terms of gathering etc. I nevertheless made 7 inspections and added about 7.5 litres of syrup but stopped feeding on 13 June, after I added three supers.



By mid June it appeared that the bees were filling up the hive boxes with honey and brood and so I decided to add some supers - just in case I got lucky! Susan had been speaking with Robert Cantrell at the beekeeping meeting and he was downsizing his operations. He had about 300 supers with built out comb for sale. He apparantly used to harvest/collect about 12,000 lbs of honey annually. We both bought just 2 supers, figuring that if our bees didn't have to expend effort making comb they could go and collect nectar and pollen and make us some honey! I think in hindsight that was a little optimistic!

So anyway, from 13 June I had two supers with built out comb and one super with just foundation frames installed on the top of the hive boxes. I added a queen excluder but most people here thing this is not really necessary. For the first week I think the supers were just being examined by the bees. They did in fact smell quite unpleasant (a bit like vomit). But I think that this smell diminished as the bees cleaned out the comb and got down to work. Susan had the same smell when she installed her supers a couple of weeks later.

By the end of the second week (almost into July) the combs were clean, but only a very small amount of honey was being stored in them. I was beginning to worry a bit. Perhaps the earlier work ethic my girls showed had waned? I think that what was happening however was the combs were being cleaned while the existing space in the lower hive boxes was being filled - and how!