Bee Space

I popped down to the hive last night. I was in my bee suit, but without smoker. I took off the roof and crownboard, and then the unwanted empty super.

Now. How to go about gently placing the crownboard down on the top of the hive, without crushing the bees who're all jostling on top of the frames?! Already they've built some brace comb on the top of one of the frames - clearly planning to fill the entire empty super with comb :) These guys are wild! I'm reminded of how they arrived here; they had built an entire new frame of comb onto one of Ron's empty, damaged frames. They clearly love building comb. They are working like demons. I love them already!

I had read the Thorne catalogue, to find out whether the hive I bought from them and assembled, is a top or bottom bee space hive. Yup, it's a bottom space. So there's no space on top to fit bees. Yet they're crowded all over the top. What to do!?

I tried just gently placing the crownboard down on the bees. There is an infinitismal space between the crownboard and the top of the frames, which are placed almost flush with the top of the brood box. I felt so conscious I might be killing a whole lot of bees, so I picked up the crownboard again.

I tried sweeping all the bees off the top of the frames. Oh big mistake - man, did that piss them off! Now I had a ton of bees all over me, buzzing furiously, and still lots left on the top of the frames.

I tried sliding the crownboard gently into place, conscious that every time I replaced the damned thing, I could be crushing bees on the edges. I seem to have an incredible knack as a "Crusher" - every time I come back to the hive, I find a poor crushed body when I lift pieces of the hive off. As I slid the board into place, a wave of bees "surfed" in front and over the top of it.

Oh bloody hell!

Eventually I just gently put the crownboard down and put the roof on. I had seen, the last time I'd lifted the crownboard, that I hadn't actually crushed any bees, so I will just have to hope for the best.

Although this hobby is making me feel like the world's clumsiest klutz, already I'm aware and feeling "in tune". I know these bees; they are gentle and biddable. Well, not so much gentle and biddable, as fiercely, fiercely focused. They are in a desperate race against time to get their new colony safely established before the winter.

Already I'm conscious that - even though my next inspection is only in 10 days' time - there still won't be time for any new bees to have been born. That will take 10 more days - from today or tomorrow, after the Black Queen's mating flights over the past few days. That takes us up to the end of June, and leaves only July and August - 8 weeks to achieve everything else.

So little time, so much to do!

As a post script, I must add that I don't care too much about a honey crop this year. I just want to feel that my bees are happily settled and made safe before winter.

Right now, survival is everything, honey is merely a bonus.

And the largest obstacle they have to survive - is me! :)