A few hive changes
I found a man about 45 minutes north of us in Newport who was liquidating his entire inventory of beekeeping supplies for only $250. This stuff is not cheap, so I jumped on it without hesitation.
We haven’t yet cleared out the storage area in the dog kennel where this will be stored , so for awhile it will look a bit like an Appalachian yard sale around here.
The new equipment is “8 frame” vs. our other equipment which is a slightly wider “10 frame” format. Narrower means lighter and easier to work with. So the frames are the same size/interchangeable, it’s just the number of frames in each box.
Montana and I decided to move our second swarm hive and our newest purchased colony to the new 8-frame setup. We chose a spot along the goat fence in the other side of the tree where we caught our first swarm.
We laid down landscaping fabric, and then we started the relocation process. This can be a little tricky, because you need to be sure you don’t lose the queen as you move frames around. Also you need to lay a stick across the new hive entrance which acts as a signal to the bees that their hive has moved (or they will return to its original location.)
One of the goodies in the batch of equipment was this awesome pink bee suit - fits Montana perfectly!
It might not look like much, but beekeeping equipment gets pretty pricey, esp. when supporting 5 hives. This batch had regular boxes/frames and also all of the miscellaneous tops, bottoms, special boxes that we use at different times of the year. The man I bought it all from had 14 hives going at one time, a testament to how this hobby can get out of hand quickly!
We will bring in the old equipment tomorrow after the bees have settled in.
You can see the temporary sticks at the lower entranes.
We left this first swarm hive alone - it’s doing great.
All that is left over by the pump house are the two hives from 2023. Given the water work we will be having over the next year+, we will probably want to relocate these two hives as well. Poor well guy is allergic to bees!
