Thanks @Dee and @Dawn_SD for your feedback. 
Today is 28°C, which calls for a proper outdoor braai (our word for BBQ). Hope all of you will have/are having/had a beautiful Sunday.
Deon
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Good day all ye beautiful people
I inspected my strong hive last week Monday in 33°C weather. How much i have learnt to appreciate my mesh jacket!
All went really well. I only had to remove two pieces of comb which were causing me trouble in removing the frames. Lots of eggs and lots of capped brood. Bees on all 10 frames! In South Africa it is custom to only use 1 brood box (due to our bees being smaller), but I am keen to add a second one to see how strong I could get my colony. I am not too bothered about honey, would just like to see them thrive.
On the weaker hive today I saw what looked like fighting on the landing board. When I looked closer, however, I saw that they were busy grooming one another! Yay! Good sign, is it not?
I am attaching a pic of bearding on the strong hive from last week.
Have a wonderful week.
Deon
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Thanks for sharing @Vestigialamentum - we can all learn from one another’s mistakes!
Dawn gave a good alternative way to use your entrance feeder. Another alternative use is as a convenient water source for a new or weak colony.
@Eva Indeed! This forum forms the bulk of my bee staple diet. I’m so grateful for all the wonderful advice and assistance I receive here.
I did follow mama @Dawn_SD’s stellar advice, and I suggest everyone do the same. I did feed them for a week, but I shall not do so again unless absolutely positively necessary. Good idea feeding them water like that, though!
Cheerio
Deon
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Never heard before that bees need to get fed water inside the hive. Really?
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In my mind’s eye I saw the feeders standing outside next to the hives. That’s how I understood what @Eva meant. I don’t know, however, if I want to add moisture to the hive by having the water feeders inside.
When I used the entrance feeders as waterers, I did position them at the entrance - in mid-spring, when helping new nucs get established for about a week. This was also because my more permanent water setup was yet to be established & it bought me a little time. Generally speaking the bees would be fine getting water available outside the hive, so I don’t mean to suggest it “should” be done, just wanted to offer Deon another potential use for the item before tossing it 
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I was stung by my bees for the first time yesterday! It feels like a rite of passage, initiation, sermon of fire. I wasn’t even at the hive for 5 seconds, just observing the exterior to see if all was well, when one flew straight for my face and stuns me on my chin. I probably missed the buzz and the bump. I immediately applied Apple cider vinegar and took two antihistamines. Had no pain and the swelling was minimal.
I must admit, I expected this much sooner, as they have been growing at quite a rate.
The extent of the swelling. One can hardly see anything.
Have a great day everybody.
Kind regards
Deon
I have had them come at me rear end first, and I’d say stinger extended…I’m guessing in your case there also might not have been much of a buzz or bump as a warning…
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Congrats to the initiation. Sorta special.
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When they come in bum first there is no warning 
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Good weekend everybody!
My husband and I went into the weaker hive last week Friday (the couple who bees together, keeps together). I was very happy to see loads of stores and many eggs and capped brood. I did however feel that the bees weren’t building comb fast enough, as it seemed as if there wasn’t a lot more space for the queen to lay. What I found quite puzzling was one of the outer frames: line of nectar/honey on top, the centre of the comb completely filled with POLLEN and one or two rows of cells with eggs on the perimeter of this pollen wheel. Is that normal?
I made the mistake of opening the corflute slider whilst the hive was open. I then had scores of bees trying to enter the hive from the bottom of the mesh, which made putting the slider back an almost impossible task.
Today I plan on putting the second brood box on the stronger colony and trying my hand at pyramiding to entice them to move up. Any comments/advice on this will be greatly appreciated.
Hubby and I:
The bees were congregating on the outside of the hive by the end of my inspection. Note the brown mark on the wooden beam on which the hive rests. I painted that with a mixture of olive oil and cinnamon. I haven’t had any problems with ants.
When I assembled the hive, I glued all the joints and made a little mess of it. Don’t judge.
Just for interest’s sake: what does a fully wired frame WITHOUT foundation cost where you are? Here is paid the equivalent of $1.50 per frame. I also paid $20 for an assembled but untreated broodbox.
Have a splendid Saturday.
Kind regards
Deon
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I’m intrigued by this and am standing by with you for some answers from our worldly experts 
It sure looks like you have a LOT of bees in that box & it makes me wonder if they need more space…but you mention they aren’t building comb very fast…perhaps you should feed them?
Yes, I agree Deon, bee-ing together is definitely a bonding experience 
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I buy them unassembled, because I like building stuff. Very therapeutic. Mine are currently $1.03 each from Mann Lake, unwired obviously:
https://www.mannlakeltd.com/shop-all-categories/hive-components/frames/unassembled-frames/wedge-top-split-bottom-bar-with-holes-in-endbars/unassembled-select-grade-frames-wedge-top-split-bottom-holes-in-endbars-case-of-100
Eyelets are 2 cents each, so another 8 to 16 cents per frame, depending on frame size. Wire is cheap enough not to cost it. Time to put it all together is probably about $5 per frame, but I get more than $5 of pleasure out of doing it. 
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Good morning beautiful folks.
A lovely 29°C here today, gentle breeze blowing, bees buzzing: bliss!
So this is how my inspection and pyramiding went:
There were SO many bees! Popping out of every corner and crevice and covering every square millimetre. The more I go into my hives, the more cautious I become, and also more mindful of not killing the queen! I haven’t seen any of the queens yet, although their eggs attest to their presence.
They have chewed off and expelled every single one of their elastic bands, and all the frames are almost entirely filled (I can’t seem to think of the correct term) out. Not one sign of any type of pest. I saw quite a lot of capped drones and some empty queen cups with no eggs in them. There seems to be an overabundance of pollen but not a lot of nectar/honey. I wonder if this is because we have been experiencing the worst drought in recorded history. We get winter rainfall here in Cape Town. We had some rain, but way below the average.
I moved frame 5 and 6 up into the second brood box. I moved frame 4 and 7 into the place of 5 and 6 in the first brood box and put empty frames adjacent to them. 4 and 7 are, therefore, in the middle of the first brood box, and the old 5 and 6 are directly above that.
Brood box one:
Full, full, full, empty, full, full, empty, full, full, full.
Brood box two:
Empty, empty, empty, empty, full, full, empty, empty, empty, empty.
I hope that makes sense.
Both my colonies seem to congregate at the entrance after an inspection. Apparently it’s very common with the African bees species of South Africa. Is that common with European bees?
I reduced the entrance again after the bees had settled down.
It’s been two weeks since I inspected my weaker (flow) colony. I shall be doing that today. I am hoping to add the super, although I don’t think they would be ready yet.
That’s just plain water in those feeders.
I’ve been quite amused at how the bees dump their dead away from the hive. There seems to be a favourite spot about 3 metres from the hive. I am also surprised by die wide range of sizes and colours I find amongst the corpses.
I hope everyone has a superb Sunday.
Regards
Deon
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My strong colony swarmed! The swarm was the size of a rugby ball. I caught it and transferred it to its own box. What an amazing experience!
I would love if anyone could give me advice:
-
I want to go into the parent colony to check if everything is OK, but I don’t want to disrupt the new queen’s mating flights.
-
I’ve got an empty nucleus box in a tree close to my hives and in seeing a lot of exploratory action there. This leads me to believe that the parent colony plans to swarm again. I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it, unless I catch that one as well.
I just want my bees to be happy and thriving, which they probably are seeing as how they are swarming.
Kind regards
Deon
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When a colony swarms they usually leave behind any number of queen cells. The queens in these cells are a week from emerging at least as some of these cells will be sealed and some open. So you have more than a week before you are disrupting any mating.
A strong colony will swarm again as you have pointed out.
Go straight in and remove all the queen cells apart from one open one with lots of royal jelly and a grub in it. Mark the frame. Return in three days and destroy any more that the bees have made. Job sorted.
By the way…this popped up while I was typing a reply.
Consider replying to more people
You’ve already replied 3 times to @Vestigialamentum in this particular topic.
Have you considered replying to other people in the discussion, too? A great discussion involves many voices and perspectives.
If you’d like to continue your conversation with this particular user at length, send them a personal message.
I would have thought that as the thread has actually progressed others involved in it might like to see the reply so I ignored it
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I agree. I suppose this thread has evolved into a personal beekeeping blog, which wasn’t my intention. However it’s nice to have most of my journey in one spot. I just hope it makes a positive contribution; don’t want to come across as self-absorbed. Thanks for your contribution, Dee.
Is there no way I could use those frames/cells to make a split by moving them above the parent hive and separating them with a queen excluder?
Another thing, there are many, many more dead bees on the ground under the entrance than usual. They swarmed on a very hot day, and I was wondering if the casualties were due to the heat or that swarming itself could have led to it.
There is an increase in robbing of late, albeit very mild. I wonder if a dearth might not be setting in.
Thanks a million for your en everyone’s help.
Much love to all
Deon