A couple of days ago, as it was going dark, we worked on the hive next to this hive with the Arnia scale. We had to shut the mean bees inside that hive, so that our nucleus supplier could pick them up the next morning and take them away for “taming”. The mean hive threw out hundreds of bees to attack us as we were working and we had to use a lot of smoke. Even then, they didn’t calm much and there were numerous bees in the air. Eventually, we got the job done successfully, sealing the entrance with #8 hardware cloth.
We did not manipulate or inspect the hive on the scale at all, so what is the bump on the weight chart below? It took me quite a while to work it out. If somebody in the US gets it right, I will send them a small sample of our Flow honey if/when we eventually get any (apologies to others, but I don’t want to mess with customs forms). The most specific and accurate answer will win. You have 2 days to think about it before I post the answer!
You hung the smoker on the Arnia hive?
Or the hardware cloth?
I won’t get the answer in a hurry, we are leaving the resort to rough it camping on Oahu without wifi.
Anyway, my Dawn honey can be delivered to Hawaii, to my brother’s farm.
I know the numbers are a bit hard to see, but if you look at the scale on the left hand side, the horizontal lines are one kilo apart. That blip on the curve is probably a bit less than one kilo.
Let’s think about the mean bees now. Each bee weighs about 0.1g (range 80 to 150 micrograms, according to my text books ). So if we had the weight increase resulting from mean bees, that would be around 10,000 bees. The mean bees were a new nucleus, only about 3 weeks after installation. I would think the whole colony has less than 20,000 bees in it, and it is pretty unlikely that half of the colony left the hive in the dark and landed on the adjacent Arnia hive! That would be a swarm-sized mass of bees, or about 2/3 of the size of a package. I thought it was bees too, until I did the calculations, and realized how unlikely that was.
Then I remembered. I was working with my naughty husband, who is a bit like a 3 year old sometimes. He was in charge of the smoker, while I tried to position the hardware cloth over the mean hive entrance and fix it down securely in position. When I turned my back, he balanced the hot smoker on top of the sloping roof of our Flow hive. I didn’t notice it for a couple of minutes, and during that time, the Arnia scale captured evidence of his deed. We have since discussed good places to rest a hot smoker.
So the closest answer was @Webclan, although there is nowhere on the hive to “hang” the smoker. Thanks for the fun, all!
Close enough, but if somebody else had posted something closer, they would have won. I will let you know if I get a harvest this year, and you can PM me a mailing address for your prize.
My brother in Hawaii will absolutely love it. I brought some of my honey here and they can’t believe it’s raw and unfiltered.
He owns an organic farm here on Oahu. After tasting my honey he will now get a flow hive or two. There are mentors here, but damn, I have to come to set up the flow hives.
I thought it was bees too, until I did the calculations, and realized how unlikely that was.