I had an operation about a month ago and, about a week ago, had to switch the location of two two-deep hives (to equalize the colony sizes).  How to do it with no help around?  I removed all frames, one at a time, and stood them up against a box.  And re-assembled them in their new locations.  It took about 30 minutes (also inspected some of the frames and looked for the queens to keep them safe).

A lot of people have bulging discs in their lumbar section and don't even know it because they don't have symptoms (only an MRI can show the herniation).  Then, one day, another heavy lift, and the buldge squeezes the sciotics nerves to the point where you can't walk straight anymore.

My advice to anyone who has even slight pain in the back: you do not have to be macho - take it seriously and take it easy.  Otherwise, you may not be walking straight when you are 70 years old (w/o an operation :).

Waldemar (who thought he was indestructable when he was a teenager ;-)
Long Island, NY



> Dee told me they
> simply pull each frame and shake and brush off the bees.  One pulls and
> hands them to the other.  At first, I thought that would take FOREVER.
 But,
> the Lusby's run around 800 hives, so I decided to try it.  To my surprise,
 I
> found it went pretty quickly and I was able to sort the frames into their
> various categories at the same time.  Actually, it works out to take the
> same amount of time and with a lot less work - at least for me.

Granted I only run 5 hives, but that's more or less how I've been doing
it.  Also, I find that if I hold up the frame by one of the ears in one
hand, and smack the top of the frame sharply with the heel of my other
hand, practically all of the bees fall right off without any brushing at
all, and relatively little agitation. Then I hold it by the other ear,
smack it again, and the rest of the bees fall off. I then just put the
frames into an empty super box on my wheelbarrow to transport them.  This
goes pretty quick, it takes about 20 seconds per frame.

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