Today I opened the brood nest. One of the issues I am realizing being foundation-less is the bees arenāt that interested in drawing comb during the nectar flow. Before the flow they were drawing it like crazy since not so much.
My first brood box filled up quickly with bees hatching/emerging everyday. It was time to add more frames. I added another box with empty frames above and after a week nothing. I moved the empty frames below and still nothing. So I decided to open the brood nest. I am worried about the queen getting honey bound. My outside frames have brood in them. They are bringing in nectar, so I took this risk to avoid a potential swarm due to lack of space. I checked the weather it should be really hot during the day and hopefully not to cold at night. Big risk hope it works out.
Thanks for the video! Did i hear you say āmites donāt fall onto the bottom boardā? Iām just a starting bee keeper, just finishing my beginners course, but weāve learned to check the bottom board for mites, and i have definitely seen mites on the board. We are taught to count them to get an idea of how bad the situation is in the hive. Fyi.
To catch mites at an acceptable threshold you need to catch them before you would see them on bees or on a sticky board. If you wait until they appear on a sticky board. You will be in a situation where they are damaging the hive. So at the threshold I willingly to accept 2%-3% depending on time of year. You would most likely not have a significant mite drop at that threshold.