Labelling up Supers

A Natinal Super will happily hold eleven frames in which bees can store extra honey which the beekeeper may harvest. However that's eleven frames with a bee space on each side. What most beekeepers do to maximise the amount of honey you can fit in a super is reduce the number of frames leaving wider combs and less space in the box lost to bee space and foundation. If you were to put 9 new frames of foundation in a box things wouldn't go very well as the bees would make wild comb in the large gaps between the frames so instead you start with eleven frames then once they're drawn out you remove one and alter the spacing and when they're drawn out again repeat the process taking you down to 9 frames. To get the spacing right you can use plastic spacers called Plastic Metal Ends ..they used to me made of metal, now they're made of plastic. You then change the size of the Plastic Metal Ends to widen the gaps. I've tried them and to be honey I find it a bit of a pain changing them so I use the other option which is metal castellations attached to the inside of each super permanently spacing the frames.

Ideally the drawn comb will wind up with 9 frame spacing but I still needed a few 10 and eleven frame Supers to help me get them drawn out that far. Some of my existing supers were already  set at ten and eleven frames and one with plastic runners. You can't tell from the outside how many frames are in a super so I decided to make things simpler for myself by spraying the outside with the numbers of frames -or an R in the case of the one with runners. I also sprayed the number of frames in my nuc boxes onto them too as they look alike too.

Stencil time

With my increased number of hives I needed extra supers and got a set of six very cheap Cedar supers from Easipet via Amazon. They were supplied without nails or glue but it still worked out a pretty decent purchase as they were so cheap. There was the odd crack here and there but nothing a bit of wood glue and clamp didn't sort out. They were supplied with some metal runners which would be fine if you use plastic spaces I suppose. They seem quite good quality so I'll be using them in brood boxes instead. I put 9 frame 
castellations into all six of the new supers.

Six new supers.

As the frames got drawn out I switched them to the new nine frame supers over time. It's not exactly rocket science but makes things a little simpler for me.

It's all about the numbers

Clearer Boards

It's more or less the time of year honey supers are removed from the hives. A lot of people will have already removed them, I seem to do mine a little later than most as my bees are still busy bringing in nectar. To get the bees out of the supers there's a couple of methods people use one is a leaf blower to blow the bees out of the supers, it's very fast but needs a leaf blower isn't pricey and I'd need a petrol powered one for my out apiary. Another method is to remove the frames and brush off the bees manually with a bee brush -I've tried that and it wasn't a whole lot of fun. The third technique is a fume board which uses an unpleasant scented pad that the bees move away from leaving the super empty. The other method is to use something the bees can exit the super but not work their way back up through. That means using porter escapes which are small devices with a couple of springs the bees can exit through but not reenter or a clearer board which is a board with a hole in the top and some sort of mechanism below that allows bees out but makes it difficult for them to get back up. I made a couple of clearer boards back in 2011 using rhombus escapes -they're called Rhombus Escapes because well they're rhombuses and I'd guess they evolved long ago without being attributed to anyone in particular. Now I have more hives I need more clearer boards.

They cost about £20 to buy ready made but they're not exactly rocket science to build. You can make the Rhombus part from wire mesh and woodem moulding but it's probably cheaper ands a whole lot simpler to just buy the Rhombus escape as a plastic part. I bulk ordered 20 Rhombus Clearers, I don't need that many but have a vague plan to sell the majority on eventually.

Yeah, it's a photo of a piece of plywood. Gripping stuff..

A quick visit to The Wood Shop sourced me some plywood and three battens. Rather than use a tape measure I opted to just use one of my old clearer boards and a right angle to mark out the plywood for cutting. I cut is with a handsaw as it was a little late in the evening to be firing up the tablesaw.

More bits of wood, some brass panel pins and a cat.

The battens I held together so I could cut all three at the same time. Cutting all 12 side pieces one at a time would've taken longer and the way I'm making them it doesn't matter much if I was a couple of millimetres out.

Boards with sides attached

Using a pin push and taking a bit of care to line up the sides under the plywood I attached the sides to the plywood boards using brass panel pins. Not sure why I'd bought brass ones but I've had them knocking about for a few years so figured I may as well use them. I had considered gluing them but I was out of glue to just used more pins instead.

Hole saw. Horrible thing.

Attaching a hole saw to my drill I started cutting the hole. I've never liked using this holesaw, it feels like an accident waiting to happen to be honest. In fact one did. cutting the first hole the hole saw teeth got caught in the board so the drill span out of my hands and shot off to one side. It was a warm evening so I was barefoot, next time I'll probably dig out some steelies. I tried again and had better luck and had no mishaps on the second and third board.

Two finished boards

The boards made I then just had to attach the plastic Rhombus escapes. The first two I made I'd glued them to the wood but this time I decided to make them removable so I can clean them. I'm not sure how thick the plywood was but I had some tiny screws left over from restoring an antique Zither Mandolin Banjo last year which I decided to press into service. They were slot screws which are a bit hard to get started as in the wood but after an initial tap with hammer I was able to get them in. There's four screws per rhombus and the board can be slid to one side to release it from the screws so I can scorch the board and clean the Rhombus to avoid spreading bee diseases between hives. I altered the old boards too so I can remove them for cleaning as well.

The first pair of Rhombus escapes I bought were made by Thornes, the new ones are from a french company called Nicot who specialise in plastic beekeeping equipment. Apart from the colour and some minor differences along the plastic edge with the screw holes and logos on they seem to be exactly the same as the previous ones. They're so similar I do wonder if someone actually made a mould from someone else's product, we'll never know. Anyway now I have five clearer boards which should be more than enough for my needs this year.

Loves is in the air

On Sunday the bees were making the most of the weather. The landing boards were busy with workers returning hopefully with honey sacs full of nectar or laden pollen baskets.

Returning foragers

I didn't open the hives though, we'd had a few days of rain so I decided it was better to leave them to replenish whatever stores they've used than interrupt their work with an inspection. As well as the workers charging in and out I also noticed a lot of Drones ambling out and a few returning. In the video below the Drones are easy to spot, they're larger than the workers and walk out very slowly compared to the workers.

Drones heading out.
They'll probably wind up as sex murder victims.

There were a few drones returning and wandering back into the hives so I'd assume they'ed just been out on orientation flights -having a fly about to figure out where they live, maybe locate the Drone Congregation Areas. Drone Congregation Areas are as the name suggests areas that Drones from various colonies hang out and Virgin Queens go to meet them. It's a bit of a mystery how they decide the areas but it seems to work for them and somehow they manage to avoid mating with Queens from their own colonies. After they mate they'll die from abdominal wounds. Strange to think each Queen bee happily laying eggs has probably killed about 15 Drones during her adolescence.