Wish me luck! I will be opening up the broodnest tomorrow

[annette]

Hey guys,

It really warmed up here today. Up to low 70's up at the beehives. One slower hive I will not touch right now, but one extremely strong hive I want to get into tomorrow and try to introduce some empty starter strip frames into the broodnest.

I will check first to see if they can fill the gaps with bees after I separate the brood frames. If they do, then I will place an empty frame in between. This is for swarm prevention. Last year my hive swarmed in early March.

Wish me well, I am always a bit nervous whenever I have to really get into the broodnest.

Annette

[Kathyp]

tequila helps.

[annette]

For the bees, or me????

[DayValleyDahlias]

OOOHHH Good luck Annette, I am planning on the same tomorrow!! EEEK!  LOL...I aspire to be a confident beek someday!

[annette]

Wish we could help each other. I think that for me the main problem is doing new things all by myself. I would love to have moral support each time. But when I succeed at something then my confidence goes up as I did this all by myself. I always say a little prayer for the bees and to calm me down before I touch them.

Good luck tomorrow and let us know how it goes. I will do the same
Sincerely
Annette

[Kathyp]

you.  just don't breath on the smoker.  ;)

[DayValleyDahlias]

LOl Kathy! :-D

[Cindi]

Annette and Sharon, I cannot believe how early spring comes your way, no kidding, that astounds me!!!......lucky yous.  Go for the tequila, for yourself, hee, hee.

Good luck Annette, you will get lots of great responses, just listen.  Evey step of the way is such a learning curve, and all that you do by yourself makes you a stronger beekeeper, yep, yep, and yea!!! yea!!! Have a wonderful beautiful day, loving our life we live, happy days.  Cindi

[annette]

OK guys,

The weather warmed up today, about the mid 70's. I got into the hive today and moved around some frames, introducing a couple of frames of starter strips in between some brood frames. The population was overwhelming in this hive and I felt they could handle the empty frame in between and fill it right up with wax.

I also did some checkerboarding  in the top honey super,which MB advised me to do since it is still pretty early in the season.

I alternated frames that were half eaten (meaning half the frames were empty - the bottom half, and the top half still had honey on it) with frames that were full of honey. Usually you introduce an empty frame of drawn out comb between the full frame of honey. I also placed a totally empty drawn comb frame directly in the center of the super.

All of this is done to open up the brood nest so the bees do not swarm.
I hope and pray this works. I plan on continuing to do this over the next several weeks. We are having our regular warm weather now, although this can change.

I just read about this checkerboarding this morning before going up to see the bees and decided I could try something.

Thanks for listening
Annette

[Understudy]

That's great.

But how was the Tequilia?

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Cindi]

Brendhan, hey, what happened to your eye, it isn't roving anymore, hee, hee.  Have a wonderful, great day, love our earth. Cindi

[DayValleyDahlias]

Annette,

Your sound like a real beek to me...whoa...congrats!

[annette]

We shall see how good a beek I am!!!!

Thanks
Annette