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Added another super to this hive over the weekend.

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thanks, … will make a small cover for each leg when needed so can put
vaseline “upside down” away from weather and bees.
Ray

thanks, will watch and see how strong they get over next few weeks before
contemplating another brood box.

ray

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@rawali I think the best advice to give would be to follow what the other beekeepers in your area run. Some areas run one brood box and others run two. If you do decide to run a second brood box everything I read and followed myself was to wait until they had the first brood box 80% full.

When I added my second brood box I checker boarded the frames. If you are not familiar with that process you can search it on this forum or on Youtube (FatBeeMan). Basically you take filled out frames and move some of them into the second brood box and then put your new frames in between them. This helps the bees draw straight comb on the new frame. The timing on mine worked out great. Their was a lot of capped brood when I added the second brood box. The population boom helped them build all the new comb and gave them even more space for brood, nectar/honey, and pollen. I added the flow frames on top of that about two weeks after I added the second brood box and they started filling the flow frames.

I hope your bees do as well as mine!

John

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Thanks John,
That is what I think I will do.
I started with 6 frame nuc full of bees, honey, brood, etc, on Sunday last,
and added 2 new plastic frames, to fill the 8 frame box, no wax painted on
wax frames, and was concerned whether they would take to them, but they had
new comb started within a day or so, and are very busy.
So, I can stagger a few existing brood frames into the 2nd top brood box
hopefully soon enough, will watch and see how the 2 new frames have filled
or not, before doing so.
Then, when as you say, top brood box fairly filled, will add my Flow Super.
Where are you located John ?

ray

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Buzzingham palace :joy: I like your shade sail idea.

Sent some more hives up to @jeffh 's corner of the world chasing the honey flow :sunflower::blossom::hibiscus::cherry_blossom: :stuck_out_tongue:

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Here’s my bees bringing in nectar n pollen today. It nearly the end of November n our temp has risen to 52.0 dgs F n my bees are out n about ! Crazy mild for end of month here in the Puget Sound SE of Seattle in the foothills. Last 48 hours it was chilly enough 50ms east of us to bring snow levels below Cascade Mtn pass elevations (s/l @ 2,500’) …

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Hi all,

Here’s a special Audubon Society post on my FB page today. Please enjoy. Not my pix ! Love the natural need of this hummingbird n some bees at the ole Watering Hole !

Ta ta
Gerald

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Brood box and roof painted and ready to put a new nuc in a few days time.

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First Harvest in my life and what an exciting time. Ok, it’s not from the Flow frame but rather from my second brood box. The bees are taking too long to work the Flow frames first time round and I don’t have the patience so I robbed a couple of frames of honey. The taste is amazing.
.
This first jar off the production line will be donated to one of our national charity groups, St Vincent De Paul at my daughter’s school who is organising a charity Xmas appeal.

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I am in Montana. So I am prepared for winter right now. I have the hives all closed up for now. Insulated them and have moisture boxes on the top. I made some sugar cakes and put them on the top of the frames on each hive. I have two deep brood boxes on both. The one hive is full of honey and bees. The other is on the low side of resources but the hive appears to have managed it properly by not having a ton of bees. Hopefully all will go well and they will make it thru the winter just fine.

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Complete opposite to us in Albury, … only snows here once in 50 years,
but still gets cold, … -2/3C, and we are going into Summer now,
everything starting to dry out and bushfires getting closer as a lot of
rain this year up til now.

Ray

Hi all,

If all goes will I should be installing a new Byte Keeper instrument package tomorrow. It’s not as fancy as some n it’s a Beta version so being test n updated as the as time goes on.

. It deals with percentage of gains or losses up/down. I’ll know much more as I get it working n able to check these figures online.

I’ve only added this to my Flow-Hive for now. See how it work. Next purchase will be a 7 frame Flow-Super to fit on one of my existing 10 frame Langstroth hive. That will be my Christmas gift this year.

It’s late here so good nite all,
Gerald

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Added Flow frames yesterday, and a few bees have started to have a look over the new combs.

Once they get going fairly well, I will possibly take off and add another brood box, and then put the Flow frames back on top.

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Uhmm…excuse my ignorance but what does it do??:confused::slight_smile:

Cool! It will be interesting to see your pictures after you get it installed tomorrow. The weather looks like it will clear up for you. Snow next week? Even if it doesn’t snow I will be glad to get a little cold snap, the hornets are still going at it. Three of my four hives do well at fighting them off but the fourth might not do so well over the winter. A good freeze should take care of the hornets till next year.

Love that shade of green Gerald!

Exciting stuff. Looking forward to hearing more as you roll out :sunglasses:

K26 n others.

Yah ! Up early before dawn again … Hoping my mentor who is an active college professor has time to help me install today. He’s installed a few of these for research in their GRCC beekeeping program already. He says it takes only 5 to 15 minute max to equip a hive n some simple tools which I have in my small woodshop near the apiary.

For the Beek asking what it is: it’s an instrument package that take inside hive temps, humidity n weight of the hive and sends this information to a central data collection point. I will be able to access this info to see the trend of these inner hive trends. So with this info/data I will hopeful be able to see the inner health of the hive n consumption of honey this winter. My brother has been coming by with his Flir/Infra-red camera as well every couple week n letting me take a good heat image pix of each hive. I’m sure all this data n info comes with a learning curve too. Should be able to graph the data n make sense of it.

True k26 ! I’m really hoping for a down turn slope in the Wx n temps. I have local Indian Plum I have planted it my yard earlier this Spring 2016 with swollen buds. So far my fruit trees seem tight budded. Out here in the foothill the hornets n Yellowjackets seem to have quit but I still observe my hives a few minutes daily just to confirm that fact. Those buggers can quickly do in a colony n I am trying to bring one smaller 5 frame double deep Nuc thru. I’m hoping successful. If I had the $$'s I’d have gotten a second instrument package to keep on that Nuc. Maybe next year. I can only bite off so much financially each year as I’m trying to full retire soon I hope. Just crossed over 71 yrs first part of November.

. Well, I’d better get my first cup of coffee done n feed my hens if I want them to keep laying … I’ll try to post pixs of the hive n install if n when soon.

Cheers to successful n happy beekeeping,
Gerald.

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