Quick Check, and Woodworking

This weekend I did a quick check of the Pink Hive to make sure the bees had worked on the newspaper. It was almost gone, so I removed all of the other pieces; why make the bees do more work than necessary?

I also noticed that the bees were bearding a lot on the Blue Nuc. That's because the queen is doing her job of laying, but with only 5 frames, there is limited space.

So I decided to take a frame of capped larvae and bees from the Blue Nuc and transfer it to the Pink Hive. You can do that as nurse bees don't fight. I found one which was absolutely full of capped brood! I took an empty frame from the Pink Hive to put into the Blue Nuc to give the queen lots of space to lay. In a few days the Pink Hive will have extra bees available.

I am planning on overwintering the Blue Nuc. I want to get a "super" of deep frames full of sugar syrup honey when I start feeding.

I decided to build a 5-frame deep super for that nuc (I already have a 5-frame medium super). So I dusted off my table saw and went to work.

I reaffirmed something that I always knew - I suck at woodworking! I made generally straight cuts with the table saw, but it wasn't anything that I'd show to be proud of! It probably took me twice as long (at least) as it should have. I don't do it enough nor do I have a dedicated space - it's not a priority right now. But it is functional, and that's what the bees need.

After a couple coats of paint, all is well!