14 June 2007

Beekeeping Update 14 June 2007 (part 2)




This is us opening the hive for the first time after "installing" them. We had removed one of the 10 frames inside originally to leave room to hang the queen cage in so the bees could get her out. They were "busy little bees", though, and during that time, filled the space where that 10th frame should go with honeycomb.
I did get stung this day... right on the bottom lip!! Someone called to me, and I called back... and it was just as I was pulling out the empty queen cage... and (zap!) I was stung. Not a big problem. I stepped away from the hive for a couple of minutes to compose myself, then went back to putting the hive back together again. Also rather wonder if the leather bracelet I was wearing played into it... was reading later a reminder to not wear wool or leather around the bees. It's a learning curve. :)
We do plan to paint the hive boxes, but just haven't yet. Trying to decide on a colour, too... the standard white? or a dark green to blend with the garden? or a bright pastel colour? There is a beekeeper in Sequim that has all his hives painted in colours like mint green, lilac purple, pink rose, etc. Right now, I only have the one hive body "deep" box, but I do have supplies to build more thin "supers" to put on top. Will decide on the paint and then make sure it dries and airs out before I switch the frames into it.
You can see the bottom board and top outer cover that the kids painted before... that's what I salvaged from the old hive that we attempted 2 years ago. That was some off-white paint, and it dribbled across the metal top, but it worked fine.

1 comment:

Kim said...

Wow....I am impressed that you do not use a suit or a veil!