My Project is coming together


Wild flower seeds planted

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Looking good :slight_smile: Especially when that is all full of wild flowers :blossom:

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@Faroe
Thanks. Can’t wait to walk through all the flowers and watch the bees work.

Thank you vesey seeds

Not quite the same as wild flowers but it will do for now. Especially on this rainy day

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Finally no rain. Bees seem happy. Time to find some pollen

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The gold power ranger likes bees as well. Cool!!!

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Vegetables planted!!!

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Week 2 hive inspection.
Still haven’t spotted the queen but I found fresh eggs. She is doing her job well I think.

These fresh foundationless frames were pretty much empty last Saturday. Busy bees!!:wink:

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Looks like nice weather for the next week or so. I think it is time to stop feeding and put the flow super on. I will do my inspection this Saturday and make sure they are ready for it :yum:

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Thank god! I live just outside Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and the endless rain is starting to wear thin. Everything is nice and green, but I’m still mowing through a puddle under the grass.

Hopefully with all the water, and some heat there will be an explosion of wildflowers for them to forage on. Our blackberries look just about ready to burst.

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Save any burr comb from your inspection so that you can smear it onto the Flow frames. :wink:

Just a thought, do you have two brood boxes full already? With your climate, your bees will definitely benefit from 2 or even 3 brood boxes to have enough stores to make it through winter. :blush:

I did ask my local apiary this when I picked up the nuc. I was surprised to hear they only do 1 brood box. I will confirm this again as I am confused. I figured bees in my climate would benefit from 2 boxes as you say. :confused:

Do you happen to have a photo of how you smear it?
Just like cream cheese on a bagel or shove a few chunks randomly over the cells on all sides of all frames?

Well, just got off the phone with the local apiary and confirmed they only do one brood box. They say it helps with the treatment of mites. They barrel feed in the fall until a 10 frame box is around 100lbs and that’s it for the winter! This is very interesting to me. When the time comes to get ready for winter I think I will be using dry sugar in their feeder over winter just in case they need something to eat.

Again, I was all gun-hoe to do 2 brood boxes, but I think it is smart to do what works around my area, especially when it comes from the local apiary. Plus, I get honey in my first year!

Much to my regret, I don’t. However, I kept it very simple. I took 1-2cm blobs of burr comb on my hive tool, and just pressed and smeared sideways gently onto the frame faces at about 10cm intervals. You don’t need to cover the whole frame, just put enough on to make it smell like the hive. :wink: Each frame face ended up with about 12 blobs of smushed wax pressed into it. The bees cleaned it all up within a day or two.

Sorry to have created extra work for you. I agree, if they can talk you through their method and it works in your area, fine. However, just remember that you only have 8 frames in a Classic Flow hive, so their bees have 25% more space in the single 10-frame brood box for storing food. I am not saying it can’t be done, just it might be tricky balancing the feeding. I would love to hear how it goes after your first winter. I know that a lot of crazy Brits overwinter on a single brood box too, but their box sizes are different again. :blush:

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True. Didn’t think of that.
I think I will still try one box. Not sure if this is true but 25% more space means more bees along with more room for stores. Can I say I will have less bees then a 10 frame and this may help them survive with just the 8 frames?

You are a beekeeper now. You can say anything you like! :blush: :heart_eyes: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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This is not work at all. This is a hobby that I love to do and any excuse to spend time pursuing this hobby I will gladly take any time of the day. :wink:
Thank you for chatting

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Thought I’d share.
Wild flowers and vegetables are growing fast! What do you all think?

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Wow, that is fast! Looks very nice. :blush: