Week One - Success!

[asciibaron]

Week One progress report -

Mixed up some feed and decided to use the baggie method.  Got the smoker going and went out to the hive which was installed from a package last Friday.  the pail feeder was 3/4 full - i figured it would be almost empty.  removed the queen cage and saw she had exited.  i set it aside so the curious bees that went in could walk out. 

next i removed the frame that appeared to have the most activity.  pulled the frame up and smack dab in the middle was the queen.  the bees are doing a good job of drawing out comb.  i removed several areas of burr comb and started my inspection of the frame.  the queen is laying as there were plenty of eggs.  no capped cells yet, i'll probably see some of that next weekend. there were many cells with pollen and the upper corners had the honey stores.  a textbook example if i ever saw one. 

i decided to try the baggie feeder and closed up the hive.  the bees didn't seem that interested in me and i felt a little nervous when i was pulling out the frame - there were more bees on it than i imagined.  as the weeks progress i'll feel more comfortable and in time it will be no big deal working inside the hive.  i just need to work on my frame shake.

i can't wait until next weekend to see how things are progressing.

-Steve

[Kathyp]

good feeling, isn't it?  :-)

one suggestion to make things easier and safer for your queen. 

if you take out one or two end frames that have little activity, you can put some space between your middle frames before you pull them or put them back in.  this way you won't have as much chance of squishing bees, or your queen.  it also makes it easier to tell which frames you want to pull.   when you are done, you just gently push the middle frames back together and shove those end frames in. 

don't worry about the shakes, just don't drop the frames!! 

[Brian D. Bray]

I was taught to remove the 3rd frame, inspect it, lean it against the end of the hive and use the space created for manipulating the other frames, then put the frame back where it belongs.  Reduces rolling the bees and eases inspections a lot.  Even if you don't start with the 3rd frame in always leave 1 frame out until you're done inspecting that particular box.