# went in today



## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

probably not the best type of day to go in overcast and 17-26 mph wind--is that too much wind? i had alot of eggs and larvae, but what a mess.
they are building comb all over the place. they stuck the bottom and top hive boxes together with comb and on the top they stuck it together cuz they are making comb side ways. needless to say alot of larvae had to get scraped off and it musta ticked the girls off. they were all over me and wouldnt even calm down when i walked away, they were on me and would quit. i only felt myself getting stung once so i am happy bout that. i did finish it but i have three more to go thru but will wait and see if the weather is better tomorrow.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Over cast isn't the kind of weather you want to messing with bees in. Wind isn't as great an issue up to about 25MPH but I like to keep it much lower.
Wish you would have taken pictures of the mess. Were they on foundation?
Try to space every other frame with drawn comb if you have it.

 Al


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

Mare ,, I don't remember you in bee class with me ,but we must have went to the same new bee class ,, here I thought I was the only one that pushed the buttons on the girls ,, over cast sky ,, wind , late , late evening ,, but on til it warmed up cool temp was added ,,not how you would want to open hives but you do it when you can ,, right ????


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

thanks Al--my camera isnt working. should i move drawn comb from the bottom hive and mix it up with the comb from the second hive? oh i forgot to say i didnt smoke them either so i am sure that didnt help--i have so much trouble keeping the smoker going an i have syrup in the fridge to spray but knew i couldnt do it when it was cold
they drew out comb in between the boxes on the hive and the ones in the second box were being drawn out from the foundation instead of with it

Tom i dont know what your weather is like but it but i am assuming its like mine here. the wind died down and the sun came out so i thought i would get ready and go into another one but before i could get ready it clouded up again---you are right sometimes it seems like ya just have to do it while you can. but then you pay the price!!

Al do they not fly so much in overcast weather or does it just make them mad?


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

there just like us human's ,, when its over cast we are CRABBY :run:gre:,, and so are they .. 
take off the sprayer and put the syurp in the microwave and warm it


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Depends on how over cast it is. If it really feels like rain then they tend to stay near home and defend it.

Toms right they are cranky old bittys when it is cloudy. When the sun is shining and they are gathering nectar and pollen their happy and friendly, unlike me. 

I'm hateing this dam 80F plus weather we have right now. checking for queens in splits yesterday the sweat band was soaked and dripping in my eyes at split number 4. Only have about 50 left and 80F predicted for the rest of the week ahead.

Personally I think mother nature should be locked upoin a loony bin till she gets her seasons corrected again.


 Al


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

are you telling me I should get closer to mother nature ??? cause if they cause if they put her in a loony bin ,, she would be in the cell next to me ..


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## sevenmmm (Mar 1, 2011)

alleyyooper said:


> Depends on how over cast it is. If it really feels like rain then they tend to stay near home and defend it.
> 
> Toms right they are cranky old bittys when it is cloudy. When the sun is shining and they are gathering nectar and pollen their happy and friendly, unlike me.
> 
> ...


What is your method to split them?


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

Mare are you going foundation less .. if so put some kind of starter strip in ... a few years ago I let them do a honey super foundation less ,, but I didn't care how it turned out just did it to see what they would do .. the entrance faced east they put comb in from the north east corner to the south west corner .. and that's the way they did the whole thing .. it was a mess but FUNNY as heck ..


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

no Tom i have foundation in there but it is almost like i dont. a friend from my home town sent me pics from a friend of hers down here--beekeeper friend. she is having a hive that is doing the same thing. i guess it is true--the bees do what they want to do.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

I think we would have better luck talking to them and finding out what they are doing and why ,, if we would take the time to learn there language (sp ) or may be they could learn our's faster because they might be smarter then some of us


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

I wonder...... If your hive currently faces south and they're building comb in a direction that makes sense to them, I wonder if you rotated your hive so that the foundation is in the direction they want to build if they would build it the way you want as well.

Not sure if that made sense, so I'll write it another way. EX: you have your entrance facing south, so your foundation runs north/south and they're building diagonally, southwest to northeast. What would happen if you cleaned out the burr comb and rotated your hive so that the foundation was southwest to northeast, the way the bees want to build? 

Anybody try that? If so, what happened? Did they still build it diagonally?


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

would be interested to hear if anybody has done this or not


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I've did three things in the past to get them to draw comb.
As stated above placeing foundation frames between drawn comb.
Putting the foundation frames (honey supers) between two deeps for ten days. 
Got rid of the plastic crap and gave them real wax foundation.

 Al


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

funny thing ,,, I call one bee supply ,, asked for wax foundation , they told me NO ONE uses wax foundation any more ,, only plastic ,,


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

went in yesterday--beautiful day for it, the other three hives had the same mess in them, not quite as bad though. i found foundation that had nectar and some pollen but some open spaces with no brood or eggs and moved them into the top box--will wait 10 days and see what happens. i thought i ordered plastic foundation with wax coating but i need to check the bills and make sure---i think they have both coated and uncoated. if i got the uncoated how the heck do i put some wax on these foundations? i would think i would have to move fast when doing it?
oh the girls were still crabby but not as bad as the overcast day, i think it had alot to do with me killing their brood though--i know i acted when some one was hurting my youngons.  it also seemed that the cornilians (sp?) were a little bit more crabbier than the italians, has anyone else found this to be?


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

I wonder...... If your hive currently faces south and they're building comb in a direction that makes sense to them, I wonder if you rotated your hive so that the foundation is in the direction they want to build if they would build it the way you want as well.
1 of my hives face south ,, the rest face east ,, turning the hive did cross my mind ,, I have wondered if the girls have a direction that they perfur to build comb ,, I know each hive would have there own direction tht they would want to build ,, if no other reason to drive us nuts .. 

Mare 
yes they have both coated and uncoated ,, to coat it ,, get a 3 or 4 inch foam rooler ,, not the one that the is for fine coat get the softer one ,, melt bee wax ( I don't know if paraffin will work or not ) rool it on .. as you do it you will learn how ,, if it fills the cell holes it fills them not much you can do .. or take a paint brush dip it ion the wax and dab it kind of fast on the foundation 

I like the Carniolans the Italians I had the first year were crabbier and hard to work ,, the Carniolans that I now have are easy to work even when only a nut would open a hive ... have thought about Buckfast but I 'm real happy with Carniolans ,and I'm stuck on them ..


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

started building hives , sbb , inner covers , covers , supers today ,, I hate wood ,, one of the weird allergy's I have ,, I make my sbb from 2x4s , like them better ,, also need to make some hive stands , have to lift the hives and put stands under them ,, this should be fun ,, all the hives but one are going full boar ,, so high number of bees coming and going it looks like bearding .. they do not use the lower entrance . only the top ones .. not looking forward to puting stands under them ,,


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

So now it comes out, plastic foundation. The bees say YUK as well as I.

Melt the bees wax then useing a paint brush cover the plastic very well with wax. Best done in the hot sun so the wax stays warm longer.

Kelleys still sells wax foundation a friend just bought 400 sheets last week. 
Mann Lake still list wax foundation in their catalog, I been going to order some since Monday morning but some thing keeps taking my time.

 Al


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