Judy is a new beekeeper. As with all newbeekeepers they make mistakes. Most common being they are in the hive to much or not enough. She fell into the later category. However these mistakes are going to help her learn. And while the pictures are not safe for lunch. They are a great way to learn from other peoples mistakes because your own are to expensive.
Judy called me because she had a backyard of bees flying like nothing she had ever seen. I went over about an hour after she called. She mentioned tha one hive seemed slow on traffic and that hive #2 has dead bees in front of it and hive #3 had bees buzzing all around it. As I mentioned in my previous post I would put up the pictures.
So here is the link.
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=63&page=3The pictures start at the bottom where I put comments. Judy now has a very good understanding of why you need to look in your hives. I also managed to convince her to swap out the solid bottom board to a screened bottom board. I recommended that for her other hives. She only had one SBB at the time but she may be inclined to get more.
South Florida beekeepers have two fold benefits from SBB. One trash falls through the bottom you can look on the ground without distrubing the hive and see if a problem is happening. This is Florida we have two seasons hot and hotter. Air circulation is vital.
I am not saying you can't have solid bottom boars. Beekeepers in Florida have been using them for hundreds of years. However every now and then an improvement comes along that helps things. Like seat belts for cars.
Every new beekeeeper should have at least one hive that they destroy (thanks for the quote tille). This is a learning hobby. But if you can learn from someone else's you benefit.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
Topic: We want honey from our hives not silk. (Read 2736 times)