Hello everyone,
today I noticed some “pools” of rain water standing on the landing board of my FH2+ and wondered if I should use the adjustable feet to level the hive so water can run off the landing board more easily and only adjust it to the 3° backwards tilt during harvest?
As long as I keep it level side to side, there shouldn’t be a difference?
That’s right, you only need the tilt for harvest. A few little pools might be a good little drink for the bees though.
Water is probably not getting up the metal screen edge and because there’s a screen, it’s not getting onto the comb for sure. So, I wouldn’t really worry about it.
I’ve checked the pest tray this morning and there was some white mold in the front.
I am guessing that’s because some water got through the metal screen and dropped into the tray. And because it’s been so wet the last days, it couldn’t go anywhere.
In addition there is some condensation behind the FH windows which made me think there’s too much “humidity” inside of the hive.
It can be risky to super with a Flow this early with nights still getting chilly. All that vacant space can be too much for them to maintain even temps. How strong is your colony? If very strong, the condensation probably won’t have a major impact. In this situation I’d still put some insulation under the roof to help them out until the nighttime temps are in upper 50Fs or so. If they are still building up and not filling the brood box yet, your super should not be on.
The beekeeper where I got the swarm said from the beginning that the colony was pretty strong when I got it and I shouldn’t wait much longer to put the super on to avoid a swarm.
I still waited a few days until they settled in and grew a little more, before I decided to add the super when I opened the brood box and the one empty frame I added was nearly all the way drawn out and there were lots of bees on all the frames and crawling on top. Then I thought they were strong enough.
Things look a lot better now that we had a few days with sun. Bees got crazy busy 