I wanted to replace the bottom board on my better hive with a new screened bottom board, but this is the second time I attempted to make the change. I have a full , and two mediums for the brood hive, then a queen excluder, and two medium supers for comb. I got off the top, the inner cover, the two honey supers and the excluder, and attempted to remove the top med brood box, which seemed to be fastened with comb to the lower frames, and did not want to lift off. By this time, I had not yet got stung, but they were hitting my hat, veil, and suit, with great ferocity, to the point they had me scared so bad I just started hurriedly putting everything back on.
To be perfectly honest with you, I think I have a real mean hive of bees, although I have traded them one empty comb frame for one full of comb filled with honey for my first sample of my own honey. My one hive is very easy for me to work with, but the other one seems to be very independent. Is it a common thing to have the bees constantly hitting your hat, veil, and torso while going deep into the hive? It does not seem as if the smoking is helping much.
There is a hole in the rear down where the ist full sets on the bottom board (which they appear to be using as another entrance), where there are always a couple of dozen bees on the sides around the hole. Possibly I am being attached by guard bees foe this entrance. I will get my thinking cap on, and figure out a way to conviently cover/close this entrance off on my next visit, and then let them get adjusted to not having it available, and then maybe I can make another attempt to go to the bottom of the stack, and replace the bottom board.
take a bigger and smaller piece of duct tape. stick the smaller tape (sticky side) to the bigger tape (sticky side) and put the non-sticky patch you have created over the hole :-)
yes, it's common for them to be upset and ping off you when you are moving them about. were they stinging, or just hitting you? if they were just hitting you, that's not a hive i'd worry about. it's the ones that come out butt first and sting the crap out of you, that are nasty.
when i have to unstack a hive, i put something next to me as a work table. a couple of bricks will do. i then unstack the hive and stack it beside me. the bottom box will end up on the top of the stack. if one box seems really aggressive, put a top on it and stack on top of the top. switch out your bottom board and re-stack the hive. take your time putting it back together. nothing worse than getting 4 boxes on and finding out that the one on the bottom is not lined up correctly! you might also try a little sugar spray instead of the smoke. sometimes it works better if a hive is really cranky.
Also when separating two boxes that are burr combed together give the box a twist to break it loose.
Quote from: kathyp on July 31, 2009, 06:41:13 PM
:-)
yes, it's common for them to be upset and ping off you when you are moving them about. were they stinging, or just hitting you? if they were just hitting you, that's not a hive i'd worry about. it's the ones that come out butt first and sting the crap out of you, that are nasty.
you might also try a little sugar spray instead of the smoke. sometimes it works better if a hive is really cranky.
I do not know if they were just pinging, or trying to sting, as where they were hitting, they were spaced off of my skin, and just hitting hat, veil, and suit over other clothes.
In the sugar spray, is it mixed 1/1 for spraying them?
if they are trying to sting you will probably know it, as they are usually somewhat successful. the spray is 1:1. the idea is not to glue them down, but to distract them. you may want to avoid spraying over your uncapped honey supers, but other than that, a light spray over the bees is good.
I have one hive that is very gentle and was digging all the way to the bottom brood box a few weeks ago and they were hardly head-butting me and not even attempting to sting.
My other hive is a different story and are mean as can be and sting the crap outta me every time I go in, so I just re-queened last week. They were stinging me through my jacket and my canvas gloves and of course my jeans.
As far as your boxes being stuck together - use your hive tool to pry between them and then give it a twist like NasalSponge said. First time I took a deep off I hurt my back because I wasn't prepared for how heavy it was going to be. Now I brace myself and use correct lifting techniques and it is better.
Having the bees buzzing you in large numbers takes some getting used to. It used to make me a bit nervous, but now I just ignore it and tune it out the best I can.
Quote from: sarafina on August 01, 2009, 06:28:10 PM
I have one hive that is very gentle and was digging all the way to the bottom brood box a few weeks ago and they were hardly head-butting me and not even attempting to sting.
My other hive is a different story and are mean as can be and sting the crap outta me every time I go in, so I just re-queened last week. They were stinging me through my jacket and my canvas gloves and of course my jeans.
As far as your boxes being stuck together - use your hive tool to pry between them and then give it a twist like NasalSponge said. First time I took a deep off I hurt my back because I wasn't prepared for how heavy it was going to be. Now I brace myself and use correct lifting techniques and it is better.
Having the bees buzzing you in large numbers takes some getting used to. It used to make me a bit nervous, but now I just ignore it and tune it out the best I can.
I got the boxes separated, but the frames seemed to be stuck to the frames in the lower box, I think the twisting would have freed them, but by that time I just wanted to put everything back, and get out of there. I will try again Monday if it is a good day, and first close up the rear entrance hole (which is just a rotted place) with Kathy's methiod, that is a great idea.
Oh boy! another (third) attempt to replace the bottom board on my hive, turned into a failure. 9:00 AM, sun shining, mild wind, not too hot, suited up, approached hive, made patch closing the unwanted rear exit, and started dismantling the hive. Removed top med super, next med super, and queen excluder. removed top med med brood box, and started trying to remove the 1st med brood box, which was still stuck to the main full brood box, evidently by comb, as when I picked up on it it was obvious that some bottom frames were coming up also, so I tried twisting it to break the comb loose, which did not work, but what it did do, was sent what seemed like a million bes up out of the hive, and fully enelloped me, scaring the bee-jasus out of me, still no stings, but I just could not go on, plus it appeared that I was not going to be able to break it loose, and started putting the hive back together as fast as I could. It did not take me long to put all the pieces back together, and return to my pick up getting in , lowering the windows letting the bees out that went into the pickup with me, as soon as I closed the door, they went to the windows attempting to get out. I drove the approximatly 200 plus yards to the house, got out of the truck. I had unzipped my suit, and veil, and throwed the veil to my back, when A visitor that was knocking on door of neighbor came over and asked if it was where B----- N----- lived, and at that time we started getting pings from a couple of bees that had followed the pickup the 200 plus yards to the house. He got one sting, over the eye brow, I was lucky, in not getting any stings. I have just about given up replacing this bottom board, but I have maybe come up with a way to separate the bottom two boxes, if I can get up the nerve to go back in. When I get down to the last two boxes, and get them separated, possibly I can use a machety, to slide between the boxes, cutting the connecting comb loose.
instead of a machete use some small steal wire(i think frame wire would work) and slide it between the boxes. It'll cut through the comb like a cheese slicer.
the wire would probably works well. i don't know why your comb didn't separate. i have never had a failure with the twisting method. comb isn't that strong. that hive sounds very aggressive. maybe you should for get the bottom board and think about a split? if not now, in the spring.