Hello,
        Got into Clarence (the Hive) this Saturday. Put in two new frames(I
bought 8 frame's worth of hive & put in a 10 frame super), queen excluder,
new super up top for my first batch of honey. Had my nephew & a friend over
to watch so I ended up not using a veil[yikes!!]. Only got a mild sting on
my finger. Many more questions, bear with me, the books I hhave read do not
answer everything.
 
1. What is the longest time to keep the hive open? The temp was in the mid
60's. I looked and looked for the queen but could not find her and the bees
were getting a little nervous (OK, I was the nervous one), so I closed the
hive up before I got to look at every frame. I must have had it open over
an hour.
 
2. I went into it again Sunday ( by the way, as per the smoker discussion I
use pine needles and YES it does tar up the pot a lot) and went through
each frame. Could not find the Queen. I saw larva in various stages and saw
eggs and I saw capped brood. Somewhere I read that if the queen dies that a
worker will start laying eggs but the brood will be all male. Is it a drone
or a regular size worker that is a male?
 
3. I am starting to see the logic of nine vs 10 frames. What a job pulling
some of those babies out. also there is one frame ( on the east side of
hive) that is a plastic foundation and it has nothing on it but a couple
clumps of wax. Could it be the plastic? Could it be its location? The frame
above it has wax in it.
 
4. There are a lot of frames that have old black comb that is misshaped and
hard. I am thinking of starting to swap it out and let the bees start
a-new. Comments?
 
5. I placed a new super on top Saturday but there were almost no bees in it
on Sunday. I got another body and put it on top of the new super and put my
entrance feeder in there in hopes that it would lure the bees through the
empty super. Any other ideas? I know it is a good practice to put a full
super above the new one but I want to keep the new super as honey only.
 
6. How much smoke is still the big question? I am really trying not to were
gloves so I can be gentle but I really want to minimize the getting stung
part.( I have very sensitive skin...:))
 
God Bless,
 
Kelley from the metropolis of Gainesville, Florida, USA...
 
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