Hi! I’m a new beekeeper up in the Catskills and yesterday, Friday, I installed my first beehive. I watched a lot of videos before hand and all of them said to take out 3-4 frames. I took out four and I didn’t put them back in because I was worried it would squash some bees and they need more time. Now I have a lot of space in the hive. I don’t live near where my bees are and the first inspection is going to be carried out by my dad and brother on Saturday. Are the spaces going to cause too much trouble for them? What should I let them know?
EDIT:: Thank you for everyone’s advice! We went up this afternoon and fixed the frames, it was pretty cold so there wasn’t much activity, so nothing much happened.
The spaces won’t cause them a bit of trouble: You on the other-hand are in for a mess and a bee-killin’ nightmare once they start filling the open gap with honeycomb.
Go fix it now is my advice.
As naughty Ed @Anon implies, you can’t know for sure.
I have seen them build creative comb in gaps in less than 24 hours. I have also seen them stick to the frames for 3 or 4 days or more. The stronger the nectar flow, the more quickly they get creative in making use of space for their stores and babies. As he wrote, you should put in the correct number of frames ASAP.
It will be too late to be sure that you won’t have to destroy (or rubber band) comb that is in the way. I would do it today, and even do it in the dark if you have to - should be a very quick job, but make sure you suit up.
In relation to returning frames without squashing bees, a good trick is to smoke that area, it’ll move the bees away, allowing you to return frames without killing bees.
It depends on how much work the bees have to do on the remaining frames as to how quickly they’ll start building comb in the leftover space.
Dan asked a good question. Foundation? Foundationless? Another question: Nuc or package?
The answers to those questions along with the size of the colony coupled with available nectar all determines how quickly the bees will fill the gap.
PS, is there just one big gap, or a frame space between each remaining frame? 8 or 10 frame super?
I have wax foundations and we used a 3lb package, the guy at the store said theyre mostly pretty young. The soonest we can make it up there is Monday night now, will that bee soon enough to make minimum damage?
It’s a two hour drive but I don’t have a car or a license so I have to rely on one of my parents to drive me so I have to work around their schedules. I think we have enough LED flashlights though, thanks
Your bee hive is designed to use a certain number of frames, you are not doing your bees any favor by not fitting the correct amount of frames. The bees will waste energy by making bridging wax comb which you then have to destroy along with the bees accidentally trapped. To be blunt you should have at least read enough in this forum to have a basic understanding about bee hives and bees before setting up a hive so all I can now suggest is to learn and learn fast from the forum by reading all you can. Sorry if this sounds harsh but my concern is for your bees.
Regards
