I finely put one of my hives on the scale. I think it is a grate thing. I do not need to open the a hive to know what is going on. Right now for example, I thought there should be good flow but it is not. The weight hasn't change for three days. Actually it has lost almost two pounds. Probably it was mainly water. And all without opening the hive. I will finely let them work without discturbing them every five to seven days, which was the longes I could restrain myself. Does anybody use the scale?
How many bodies do you have on the hive?
The picture in my head is you with a four stack hive straining to move it on to the scale. Bees flying everywhere. The occasional ouch as they sting you. Finally getting on the scale looking at the weight as half of the bees laugh from a nearby tree branch. Then picking it up again nearly tripping over a tree root and putting it back where it was. Going inside taking some asprin for the back pain. Laying down for a few hours and thinking this was great and anticapating doing it again tomorrow.
:-D :-D :-D :-D
Sincerely,
Brendhan
My thoughts exactly, plus i think one has to see whats going on inside the hive, do i need rearrange frames, is my queen still layng, are hive beetles invading etc.
It wasn' t that bad at all. I have three deeps and two shallows on this hive. I just took off the boxes like I do during chacking, and just one deep with the bottom moved on the scale and put the rest on. Bees berelly noticed. Yes I need to check queens and brood. But I can do that every two weeks or more. I will post picture.
Long time ago I had a hive on an old grain scale similar to this one. It was pretty neat to watch if I recall.
(http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/19333_lg.gif)
I was looking for this kind. Unfortunately new costs around 500, I found one used on ebay but in California, pick up only. Little to far. I bought doctors scale on ebay for 160, works the same.
$200 from Northern Tool, 1000lb capacity.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_22929_22929
Thank you Robo but shipping would be almost 100$. This is how it looks like
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y214/mosypiuk/DSCN9435.jpg