Two Weeks with a Honey Super And All I Got Was Some Burr Comb.

I patiently waited two weeks for the girls to start doing their thing in the new honey super. During this time, I wondered how much they would accomplish up there knowing our spring nectar flow was over. When I removed the super today I found this wonderful burr comb reaching up from the queen excluder. I really hated to remove it because it is such a wonderful piece of comb (with a bit of nectar in it for good measure...) but I had to do so and began my inspection down in the bottom box.

There was lots of pollen, honey and capped brood with a few larvae in the bottom box. Two frames were heavy with pollen and honey. While there were some larvae and lots of capped brood, I did not see any eggs. I did remove a queen cup from the bottom of one frame.

I must have made a mistake with the order of the hive bodies my last inspection as the middle box was nearly void of any drawn out comb. While I did not spot the queen today, the top box was busy with lots of eggs, larvae and capped brood. I did remove another queen cup from the top of one frame and then rotated the sparse middle box to now sit in the top position.

Summer is typically swarm prevention so will check in on the bees in another two weeks and see if the brood has moved up to utilize the top box.

First Honey Super On!

It is a big day for the apiary as I added the first honey super! In just one week's time, the girls have nearly filled the 3rd hive body with eggs, larvae and honey. It is simply amazing how quickly a hive grows in strength and productivity.

This photo is of the third frame in the middle hive body (I'm using three medium supers for the hive body.) Lovely brood pattern and lots of honey.

I did not take the time to search out the queen because she's doing such a super job as evidenced by the amount of eggs present. Instead, I was looking for swarm cells and removed two uncapped queen cells found on the bottom of a frame in the middle box. I rotated the hive boxes so that the emptiest bottom box is now on the top.

One important step in learning how to be a beekeeper is effective and minimal use of a smoker. I have been having trouble keeping it light throughout my whole inspection as I find a quick couple of puffs disperses the bees and allows placement of a hive box or cover without crushing the bees.

To take the advice of long-time bee keeper Bob Cory, fire burns from the bottom. So I took great care today to create a nice base fire. I did think it had burned out before I was finished with my inspection but with good use of the bellows, we were still able to communicate with the Chief via smoke signals well after I was finished.

What's the Point of Joining a Club?

There are some, like myself, who joined BUMBA as part of the Short Course and continue to attend meetings in order to further our knowledge about this new hobby. And I was thoroughly enjoying everything I was learning as well as getting to know the good folks at BUMBA. There are a few outstanding people in that organization who not only know a lot about beekeeping but who also go out of their way to help out the newbies. They patiently answer our questions and even visit our hives to help us learn.

But all that good will has been soured by a recent comment by a club officer. There was a bit of discussion at the meeting due to something stated in the presentation that was confusing. Questions were raised but the answers only worked to make it even more confusing. I was hoping one of the more experienced beekeepers would intervene and clarify things, but instead an officer of the club reprimanded the room saying essentially, that we should be doing our own reading to learn our own answers to the questions.

Uh? What is the point of joining a club if it is not to share information? If you cannot or will not encourage participation and welcome it from everyone, any club will eventually die out. I don't think that will happen to BUMBA as it is certainly strong enough based on the size of its roster. But I cannot help but wonder what damage has been done thanks to this off-handed comment by a club officer.