Spring is in full bloom and there was lots of work to be done in the beeyard lately. Our colonies are booming and it was time to put on the honey (medium) supers. A honey super, also called a medium, are just like hive boxes but are about half as deep. We place these with medium frames on top of the hive box. The bees naturally want to move upwards in the hive and will store their honey up above their brood if they can.
Why is a honey super so much more shallow than a hive box? Because those frames get heavy when they are full of honey! By using a smaller box and frames, the honey super is much lighter and easier to carry when full of honey than a deep super would be.
Kurt also brought up a captured swarm, so we needed to "hive" it, or put it in a full size hive body. So we added yet another colony to Boojum's Beeyard. Check out the photos from our beeyard work day!
First we opened the colony that needed a honey super to look for a good frame of brood.
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| photo: Robyn Young |
Wow, look at all the capped over brood on this frame! We'll put this into the hive box that we want to put the new swarm into. Having brood in there will encourage the new colony to stay (they will now have young to care for).
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| photo: Robyn Young |
See the pollen patties on top? Beekeepers can buy these cakes of pollen to help feed their bees, especially early spring before many flower sources are available. This colony is doing so well it has barely touched the pollen patty we put in there a month ago!
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| photo: Robyn Young |
We inspect the colony, finding that it is indeed healthy and ready to be supered.
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| photo: Robyn Young |
Jaimie, an intern here at Boojum Institute, joins us for the inspection:
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| photo: Robyn Young |
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| photo: Robyn Young |
This metal grate is called a queen excluder. The holes are big enough for worker bees to get through, but not the queen. We put this between the hive body and the honey super. That way, the workers can fill the honey super with honey and the queen can't get up there to lay brood. That's how we make sure there's no baby bees mixed in with the honey!
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| photo: Robyn Young |
Here's a nice photo of the bees "bearding":
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| photo: Robyn Young |
Here we are putting the frame of brood into the empty hive box. Now it's ready for the swarm:
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| photo: Robyn Young |
This smaller box is called a nuc box. We use it to temporarily house captured swarms:
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| photo: Robyn Young |
A closer look at the nuc box full of bees. A gentle puff of smoke masks the alarm pheromone and calms them.
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| photo: Robyn Young |
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| photo: Robyn Young |
The swarm's queen is on this frame, do you see her?
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| photo: Robyn Young |
The new home for the colony. We transferred all the frames from the nuc box into the new hive body:
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| photo: Robyn Young |
Getting ready to "pour" the bees into their new home:
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| photo: Robyn Young |
And there they go!
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| photo: Robyn Young |
Now we put in some empty frames to complete the operation:
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| photo: Robyn Young |
The swarm has been relocated! We've given them brood to care for and gave them pollen and sugar syrup to supplement them, all to encourage them to stay in their new home!
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| photo: Robyn Young |
Thanks for checking in with the Boojum Bees!
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