Two weekends ago I did a complete hive check. I hadn't bothered the bees in over two months. Beekeepers are supposed to check the hives monthly but I'd walked out there and seen a lot of pollen gathering activity at the entrance so I knew they were okay and wanted to let them stay on a roll.
The first step in a hive check (and again, this is my first year so I am constantly learning, improving and in no way an expert) is to get the smoker going good. I'm nothing without that smoker! Also my bee suit, I'm nothing without the bee suit! I need to order those little smoker pellets because the old fashioned way of gathering pine needles is pretty time consuming and takes a while to get going.
Once the smoker was puffing away, I started by removing the top inner cover. Then I removed the top box (called a "super" in beekeeping jargon) and looked inside it and inside the lower brood box.
The bees make a substance called propylis that is like a super sticky glue made from pollen. They use it to fill even the tiniest holes in their hive to keep it airtight. It's like caramel, it gets gooey in hot weather and super hard where you have to crack it apart in cold weather. That's where the hivetool comes in, you have to pry each frame off the box ledge to lift it out.
When I finally got a look at the top box frames in the daylight I saw that they are FULL of honey!
The end frames are halfway full on one end and empty but starting to get filled on the other. The frames above are pulled from the sides. Here's what a frame looks like when the bees are just starting to build the honeycomb to fill with honey in the top box-
Bees always keep their brood on the bottom and their honey at the top. After checking to make sure that they had plenty of honey and sufficient brood comb I looked for the queen- no success and then did the same thing for the other hive. The other hive was NOT in the mood to be trifled with- they started getting into swarm formation flowing over the bottom super so I smoked the hell out of them and kept the visit short.
I really need a bee mentor. I'd love a sassy old lady with grey braids to tell me what I need to do better- alas...I may just have to start going to the local beekeepers meetings where I'm pretty sure it's just going to be me and a bunch of old guys. No offense to old guys! If they're anything like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino we'll get along famously. I even have a porch where we can drink beer and judge America's youth. Until then, I'll keep feeling my way through this.
Warning: In Gran Torino style, there is a curse word in the first 20 seconds of this video. What do you want from me? It IS effing fascinating, okay?? :)
*Many thanks to my patient videographer for braving the bees to briefly document this inspection!
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