Wow, what a difference a few weeks make. About 2 weeks ago, I checked the hives, noted that they were growing at different rates. Mine seemed to be a little ahead of Reese's with lots of brood and the frames being drawn out. I made a mental note to order the new honey supers since you will need them earlier than you might think.
I get back from a trip, and go to check out the girls only to find them spilling out of the hive, large numbers of them in the entrance and all the frames in both boxes totally filled. Not just with comb but with brood, honey, pollen...jam packed. Then it got hot. Now I realized I should have ordered the honey supers and been ready. I hadn't and wasn't ready. What to do?
Panic was the #1 reaction. By all accounts, I was (and still maybe am) setting myself up for the hive to swarm. Too many bees, too little space, hot, and right at the time in mid Spring when the bees have a tendency to swarm....great. So, I started emailing and calling around. First call was to Tony L. from the club who said: "get a honey super on yesterday!" He also noted that hives will beard by congregating outside the hive to cool off. Great...new beekeeper and no clue. How could I have been so damned lazy to not order the honey supers?
Here is a picture of Ed K.'s hive bearding. Nowhere near what I have!
Next email was to Ed K. at the club too. Ed was SUPER helpful and went out of his way to help me out. He reiterated I needed to put the honey supers on even if it was raining and to not wait. He gave me an older hive box with new frames/foundation that I could use. Not only that, he drove up in the rain and delivered it to my door! THANK YOU!
So, the same day (3 days after seeing my bees do their thing), I popped the top and put an old box with new frames in. I didnt have a queen excluder at the time but more on that in a minute. Howard said that he would use the box with no hesitation since he knew where it came from and he was sure of no contamination. What Howard says, goes.
Drove up to Tyngsboro to get some supplies from Rick. Great guy. Bought 3 boxes, and 20 Pierco frames. All I need to do tonight is paint the boxes. here's the next step. I now have a honey super that is being worked on and hopefully the comb is being drawn out. On Saturday, i need to put the queen excluder and then frame by frame knock the honey super bees into the new supers to make sure the queen is NOT in the honey frames, otherwise, she'll go ahead and lay eggs. Then, I need to go in and really inspect the hive to make sure I dont have swarm cells or burr comb in the hive bodies. Then, i need to treat the bees with the sugar to start the IPM process and really keep the mites in check. Rick also suggested that I put a drone frame in to have drone brood and pull the frame 2 days prior to them hatching. That might be a little too ambitious....the rest, will happen on Saturday.
