Lessons from first HH

Modifications & Building Bee Hives
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Learning experiences first time with a HH

  1. The horizontal hive definitely worked.

  2. When using fly wire as an entrance reducer, unless it is made out of metal fly wire the bees will eventually chew through it.

  3. If bees can fit through a space they will. They slipped past my screened bottom board to the foam bottom and made their own exits. You can see where the divider board was, they were eating their way under it.

This HH was run with 2 queens with a divider board and resulted in two very strong hives. Probably too strong for a suburban situation in its current location. I have put the two hives in new boxes and will separate their location in the yard. I will try running each as a single brood box and make sure to early splits in Spring and inspect them regularly.

Meanwhile the over winter the HH will undergo some improvements to keep the little munchkins where they are supposed to be :rofl:

Original Hive

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Second layer was a brief experiment, I know, I know, it goes against the idea of a HH :upside_down_face:

Chewed Bottom Board

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With holes in the bottom board it was quite fun watching them drop out the bottom and wait to get airspeed up before flying. Even considered a permanent bottom entrance just for the entertainment value. (but I won’t).

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Well done Karen, there’s nothing like learning from experience.

I see that bottom board was poly styrene. I’ve noticed they rapidly chew through that. Nothing wrong with the idea of using it for insulation purposes. You’d just need to cover it with something the bees wont chew through.

cheers

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Thanks @JeffH yes there was a screened bottom board between the bees and the poly. The bees shouldn’t have been anywhere near it.

The little munchkins just worked their way around the screen. The screen must have warped slightly. One of my lessons is space is critical ! :smile::+1:

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