What Does the Novice Beekeeper Need to Know?

Number 1c

Managing the inside of the Hive

"And Why"

I know I talk a lot about leaving the "bridges" of wax the honeybees build vertically between the layers of frames. I say don't scrape the bridges off when you inspect the hives. The first thing the bees will do after you close the hive up is start rebuilding the bridges. They are used so the bees full of nectar don't have to jump the 3/8" gap. It is hard to do when you are full of nectar. However, the caveat is you need to inspect the hive 3-4 times a year and break the bridges. When replacing the upper box (hive body or honey super) do it exactly the way it came apart so the bridges match up.

Two things happen if you never break the bridges. One, is the workers will start using that space to make drone cell comb. Second is, as the wax ages the bees add to it and it becomes thicker and harder. Once that happens it is extremely hard to break the box layers apart. Also, when you try to pull a frame out it won't budge. Then you pry really hard and break the top bar off the rest of the frame which is still in the box.

This also applies to propolis build up. If you infrequently remove the frames or box layers the propolis build up will make it much harder to get the frames apart. Once a year you should clean the propolis off the frame's ears (ends that rest on the rabbet), the sides of the frames where they touch other frames, and the edges where boxes sit together. This will allow you to more easily separate these parts for the next year.

Propolis removal is a February activity on equipment you are not using. The cool propolis will pop off more easily.

Save up the propolis to use or sell as a by-product of the hive. At $10 per ounce it is 16X more valuable than honey. It is 10X more medicinal than honey.

When you are really bored and have a warm day you can completely tear the hive apart and clean it up. You need to identify the queen and make sure you don't kill her during the process or let her escape into the grass. She can fly at least 10'. You can cover the queen on the comb foundation with a push in screen cage that is 4"x4" catching the queen and some worker bees. Place this frame in an empty hive body off to the side.

Now you can go through the entire hive (with no honey supers) inspecting your wood work, the orderliness of the drawn comb, and the serviceability of your frames.

Inspecting your wood work: Your boxes, lids, and bottoms all start rotting from the inside out. Presumably the outsides are painted. The insides are not. There is a lot of moisture build up on the inside of the hive during the year. The bees try hard to control the moisture, but, the untreated inside wood will rot. This is not a problem for the first 5 (?) years, but, it will happen. Some wood rot is acceptable. The bees can handle it. Don't they live in hollow rotten trees? So, a hole rots completely through the adjoining edges (usually in a corner) of a bottom or two boxes. The bees now have an extra door. You can use fancy wood putty to repair the hole or just leave it. If you don't move your hives from place to place this is not a serious problem. If the rot is so prevalent that the box starts to lean, put on a new box. The old box is not trash. Measure the solid portion of the box and cut it off with a circular saw. If the top is still good cut a deep box into a medium or a shallow. If the there is only 2 inches of good wood cut it into a spacer. Many times you would like a 2 plus inch spacer in the hive. This will accommodate baggie feeders over the top bars. If the spacer is large enough it might accommodate some other style feeder. It will also help when feeding pollen patties or grease patties (anti trachea mites).

The orderliness of the drawn comb: How many times have you discovered poorly drawn comb on you frame while doing a general inspection? Sometimes you leave it because the queen has laid eggs in it, or you don't have a replacement frame ready. This is not a serious problem as the bees in a hollow tree make all kinds of weird comb and do quite well. However, you are looking for the queen and she uses the malformed comb to hide in it from the "bear". The bees can put up more brood per frame when it is built in an orderly fashion. Also malformed foundation can make it harder to remove the frame from the box, damaging the foundation which holds brood or honey. Replace the frame with a new frame with or without foundation (what ever you do normally). This will encourage the construction of orderly comb. Usually, the bees will repair poorly formed comb with more poorly formed comb if you only remove the buggered up area.

The serviceability of your frames: Some obvious problems will be top or bottom bars that have been pulled apart during inspections. You just wedged them back in because the bees were using the comb in an alright manner. Now is the time to pull those frames, reglue and renail, or replace with new ones. Bottom bars and frame ears have a tendency to dry rot first. Most times you can not replace rotted bottom bars because the joint with the end bar is also rotted. There is a metal frame ear replacement available from the bee equipment supply houses. I keep a few in my tool box to replace broken ears during he working season. These metal ears can add several years to the frame's life. If the ear deteriorates sufficiently the frame can fall crooked into the box. You are also looking for really dark brown comb which indicates the wax is many (more than 5) years old. You do not want comb older that 4-5 years in your brood area. There is a phenomenally high accumulation of ambient air pollution chemicals retained in the wax. At some point the absorbed pollution can harm the delicate larvae growing in the cells. Dark "honey super" comb will stain the color of your honey. Two year old wax will darken super light colored honey such as sourwood. Amber spring flow honey will darken from light brown 3-4 year old wax. I use new comb for sourwood honey. I move my two year old honey frames to spring honey for 2 years (3 yr. old wax). I use the late spring honey flow to draw the comb for next years sourwood. This creates a nice white wax and uses the more abundant spring nectar flow for the wax building. I don't like to waste the higher quantity sourwood drawing comb. After sourwood I will also draw comb using sugar syrup. The honey stored in these combs can be used as winter food.