Bees Alive!         Home Page    New Bees    Bee Disaster   MiscPics    All Bees                    July 18th - July 21, 2008

I've tried to make a good home for these guys but they prefer to sleep outside it seems. Are they sticking out their little bee tongues
at me? They were already outside this morning at 6:30 AM and it was only 67 degrees fahrenheit. Maybe they just couldn't all fit inside?

This image is a link to a QuickTime movie that shows how much activity
is really going on here. Bees flying every which way. The movie is about
four times the size as the link below. It is about 5 megs. This was taken
Friday afternoon after I ventilated the front and top of the hive.

Movie of beels on hive

These first pictures were taken early Friday morning when it was still cool.

Are my bees camping out today?


Bee cluster caps hive


My hive is dripping with bees


My shady grove and hive.

So I wrote Kim Flottum and he made a number of suggestions. Several addressed ventillation. So I removed the entrance restrictor
and took off the top.

After removing hive entrance restrictor

Right at the entrance it was very crowded still.

Crowd at entrance

Friday night around 10:00 pm they coated the entire front and top of the hive. Note that I have removed the hive cover and just have the inner cover.

Friday night bee coat

Saturday morning around 8:30 am, the top was still covered but the front of the hive was occupied only by those bees not off and working yet.

Saturday morning bee cap

The front of the hive Saturday morning was covered with clusters of real "hangers oner". Note that you can clearly see
that the entrance reducer has been removed. This had been removed in the picture taken on Friday night but because
it was covered then by bees, it wasn't clear.

Saturday morning lingerers.

The entrance to the upper super is clear so I hope work is going on.

Close up of upper hive body.

Note that the bees like to stay connected where possible. There is a "one bee wide" bridg across the entrance to the landing board.

Saturday morning bees form bridges

A close up Saturday morning of the area just below the new Ross Rounds hive body.

Massive collection of bees

Monday July 21, 2008

At 3:00 pm today, it was 97.6 degrees F. outside. At 7:30 am this morning the entire top of my hive was covered with bees. This was with the inner cover offset so
about six inches of opening was open to the air. By the time I installed my open bottom board at lunch time, most of the bees had dispersed to the fields (or goofing off
somewhere out of my sight anyway).
 
This is a shot of my hive now. At lunch I quickly fashioned an open bottom board per John Hoffman's articles in "Bee Culture."  I had to re-read his articles more
carefully to realize that the bees now would leave the hive through the screen and that is why I couldn't use the 1/4" galvanized screen that I had first purchased.
 
Being lazy, I realized that I could have an "instant" frame for this bottom board, by cutting off an inch thick "slice" from a broodsuper. I had switched several years
ago to all medium supers (6 5/8" high) to simplify inventory since I have never had more than two hives going at once.  I cut two slices and immediately attached
the screen to one of them and installed it.
 
I also ended up with a medium super that is useful to me now.

The bees seem cooler but this was early.

I closed up the hive some.

You can see that I reduced the offset

I stopped the cut after having done 3 and a half sides, just to take this picture. (below)

Slicing off the super

Here is the finished frame ready for the galvanized 1/2 inch screen.

Instant frame.

I cropped the first picture to make it clear where this screen bottom board ended up.

Installed

All I need is a panda. Do panda's like honey?

All I need is a panda.