Friday, March 29, 2013

Here is my bee hive last year
 Last Spring I got a bee package and installed
it in my hive.
You can see it right here on the left.

You will notice that the hive is made up of boxes.
The boxes at the bottom of the hive are where the
queen likes to lay her eggs, thus these lower boxes are called, "brood boxes".

Last spring I had 2 brood boxes and 1 honey "super". The boxes that are on top, or superior to the brood boxes are called supers.

Ok that was your bee lesson kids.

Any way this colony of bees has been very successful. 

As you can see from the lower photo. I have added 3 boxes since last spring, (one is not in the photo)
 
Here is the hive this year

Each evening when the bees come in there is a kind of traffic jam to get into the front door. The bees that are waiting to go in get really fed up and if I am in the garden area they sting me!

Because I would like to actually move around in my own garden,  I need to move the hive.
I have been waiting for the right day.
The weather needs to be sunny, warm and still, so most of the bees will be out foraging.
Then I will move each box one by one to the new location.

I will put a "land mark" in front of the hive so the bees will realize the hive has been moved and will be able to find their way home.

Even with the marker, for a while bees will return to the location of the old hive.
So every evening I will put a box out for these girls to go into, then when it is dark, I will very carefully close the one box and carry it to the new location. After around a week, they will all have adjusted.
leave box at old location for dumb bees

                                                                                   I need: Sunny day ,Warm day, Still day and
to be home for at least the 5 afternoons, following to move box ( my family is terrified of the bees, so no helpers there)

 I will let you know how it goes!

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