Ventillation, Swarm Urges and a Royal Miracle

I'd read recently that improved ventillation, along with extra space in the brood nest, can help prevent swarms. I also read that slatted racks were crucial in this quest. They go on the bottom board, provide cool air in hot months and protection from cold drafts in winter. They also give the bees extra space to congregate underneath the bottom bars of the hive body, reducing the number of bees on the frames and lessening congestion. This is supposed to reduce the swarm urge. I had a couple old racks my big brother Tim had given me.

_I spent some time taking out some of the slats, since I run 9 frames in a 10-frame deep. I want the mites they pick off to fall down and out of the hive, not onto the slatted rack and back into the hive. Natasha had no swarm cells in my inspection this past weekend, but I felt like it was only a matter of time, seeing so many bees bearding up on her doorstep each day. It was time for ventillation control.

After finishing work on the old, cranky slatted rack,  I just didn't like how it looked. Also I'd need something to raise the walls of the bottom board, since the rack will sit atop the board and underneath the brood box. I decided to make my own rack. I had an Imrie shim on hand, and some extra bottom bars. I used my 9-frame spacer to measure out where the slats should go, so they square up underneath the frame bottoms of the brood box. I marked the center point where each frame would be.

I used a tack hammer and some tiny nails to put two extra shim/wood pieces I had on hand (also from my brother ... lots of pieces and parts were given to me, some of which didn't have an obvious purpose). I am now saving all odds and ends wood pieces since they may come in handy. After the two braces were in place, I tacked in the bottom bars onto the braces. The trick, here, in not crushing the small braces with the large bars on top was putting another bar underneath the braces as I nailed, for stability.

The nailing took its effect on the Imrie shim, though. This thing was barely put together! Wood glue and a single staple (sometimes not) in each corner. I stopped construction and stapled the corners back together, nice and secure, after adding a bit of carpenter's glue in the corners.

The staples did the trick. And here's my homemade slatted rack. The racks are supposed to give 2 inches of extra space between the bottom board and the frames. Well, I didn't have 2 inches. The shim is an inch tall. I plan on making shims out of 1x1s (and additional slat frames out of 1x2s) using cheap lumber from the hardware store. I'm tired of buying bee equipment that costs a fortune! I actually saw a piece of wood with a hole in it (a nuc "introduction board"), for $7. Really?!! I'm making my own when I can and as I learn. I'm an artist and apparently becoming a bit of a carpenter as well.

A top view of my slatted rack and my original intention: put the new rack atop the old, which should give the bees lots of extra room to congregate. Unfortunately, I discovered that you also have to have additional wall space so there's not openings around the brood boxes. Oh, well. I'll just use my homemade rack instead.

Here's what my homemade rack looked like atop the old rack and on an old bottom board. The old board had an additional two-inch wall built onto it, making room for the old rack. Not so on my current screened bottom board on Natasha, as I soon found out. So I'll use the old rack and board in a bait hive, or back into storage it will go.

Once my rack was made, out to the apiary I went. I looked inside Boris' super. I'd been inside the brood boxes twice this past week so I left those alone. Here is one super frame with the girls making a nice frame of foundation-free comb.

This frame was near center, and chock full of capped brood. I am not using a queen excluder. Trying that out. And with Boris almost swarming on me, I figured I needed to give her royal majesty as much room as she wants. Plus, once this frame hatches out, it'll be free for honey. Once the flow is really on and lots of nectar is coming in I think they will create a natural honey barrier up top that she won't cross. We'll see. This frame was just drawn out, and is touching in parts on all four corners. She's laid down to the edges, even those not touching.

Another foundation-free frame, beautifully drawn out and not even finished, but half-filled with brood. Looking at brood on the natural comb is different. It looked like almost all of it was drone cells. Actually it was a lot of drone with worker brood interspersed. The laying pattern is nice and tight, though. I am trusting the bees. I think she will lay drone when needed. I am suspecting it is to attract the heavy mite load AWAY from the worker brood, as drones are the Varroa's favorite target.

_EMERGENCY BULLETIN: This just in. Look at the bottom center-point of this frame. It's a half-built swarm cell! How did I miss this on my inspection? It's another reason I photograph and blog, so I can review my mistakes (hoping I, and others, learn along the way). I'll have to check this out and see if they're just making these for the fun of it, or if there are others in the hive capped or about to be. Dang it, Boris, please don't swarm on me!!!

The brood had a lot of drone cells on it, and some larvae. A corner closeup. The closer the cells are to the edges the larger they seem to get, especially as the comb rounds out naturally. I didn't see the queen here, but there are LOTS of boys on this frame. Look at all those big eyes. And the super's opened up additional space for the queen to work in. I think it's time to do another reversal on Boris, check out those empty frames I put in, and possibly remove another deep honey frame or two so they'll fill out some more empties for her highness to work on.

I alternated foundation frames with empty frames, to help guide the bees. Apparently I shouldn't have done this. Michael Bush told me that when you mix and match they'll make the foundation comb "fat" and spilling out. He was totally right. Look at this splotch. And she's already laid in it, mostly drone. I'll also be adding in some plastic drone frames, and will routinely remove the larvae once capped, thereby reducing the mite load as they'll head for the drones.

This foundationless frame was odd. They seemed to have gotten off-track and started to draw comb out toward the center. I twisted those gently back into place, hoping they'll straighten it out and connect it all up nicely.

A beautiful start on another foundationless. My first impression was that they'd started work on the foundation frames first and so far more successfully. I was a bit bummed to see this. But the foundation frames already were started with comb coming out, from the hive last fall, so I shouldn't have been surprised. And according to Michael Bush, it was a mistake to mix and match, just go all foundation and all foundationless so they'll draw out uniformly. But look at how they've already filled most of this with fresh spring nectar. I am anxious for honey this year!

Natasha's bees had barely just begun work on their super. I felt a bit relieved, in that she's definitely the weaker of the two hives, still. I think I have a bit more time to avert the swarm urges and congestion in Natasha that Boris has already been through (and apparently is still intent on, so far). I have GOT to improve conditions on Boris, and will definitely make and install a large slatted rack this next weekend.

The super frames in Natasha were quite empty. But a start's a start, after all, and here is her first foray into a foundationless super frame. Since I've started this mix and match experiment, I may have to do some more straightening out. Instead of cutting the big pieces out and getting rid of them, I may use string or rubber bands to put them on foundationless frames until the bees attach the pieces in, just like I would with feral comb from a cutout.

_And look at my two nucs. So far they're doing well I see foragers coming and going every day. This past week I was putting some water in the little dish two feet in front of the nucs. As I was squatting and pouring the water, enjoying the calm around the hives, I noticed several orientation flights going on around the first nuc. And then I saw her: THE VIRGIN QUEEN IN FLIGHT, making her orientation. She hovered, then landed on the landing board (see, they're not useless, they're nice). Then she hovered and landed again a few more times. I said a prayer and felt truly blessed to have seen what I consider a miracle, for some small but for me HUGE. I actually got to see a queen in flight. She was twice the length of the other bees, and her black patch on her thorax was super big. I was so thankful to be there ust at the exact moment she happened to be making one of her flights. Then OFF she corkscrewed and zipped past my head. I said some more prayers that she will return safely after successful orientation and then mating flights. Seeing her in flight put all of my worries and stresses of work behind me and gave me a fresh perspective on life.

Natasha had actually started drawing out the foundation frames, which were already started last year. There were two she'd started in earnest. Here's one.

And another super frame, working off the foundation in Natasha.

I took my friend Libby's advice and am now using extra backup screens (I recently ordered a couple more). They're light, and they keep the bees a bit more calm and out of your face. I use them on boxes I'm not working. I removed the second deep off Natasha, then screened the bottom deep and moved it atop the second box, off to the side.

In went my homemade slatted rack. It's small, and needs a larger wall space for sure. But it gives a LITTLE extra room for the bees to congregate. We'll see how Natasha likes it until I can add in another inch of space with another shim on top.

She seemed to take to it immediately. The slats lined up nicely with the frames from the brood box above. And yes, I did test this out, making sure I hadn't nailed the slats in the wrong direction, with an empty deep and some frames ... I do tend to have these kinds of logical engineering issues and put stuff together wrong, then undo it, then back together again correctly.

Nectar is coming in. I'd better be MORE prepared. I put in another equipment order, including two more supers. I am running out of money for equipment. I already had another two ready to be built, so each hive will have three shallows this year. I'll just harvest each hive in batches, is my plan, throughout the honey flow. I went ahead and nailed those shallows together. Olive offered moral support.

After the additional shallows, I had to put together frames for them. I was immediately frustrated as the top bars on a bunch of frames I'd bought last year were too big. I forced them in, and they split several of my side bars. Grrrrrrr! I had to add staples on the sides here for reinforcement, and then whittle down the edges on the remaining top bars with a box cutter until they fit snugly. If I have this same problem on my next batch of frames I'm sending in a complaint, and going elsewhere. Heck, maybe I'll end up making my own.

Let's end this post on a positive note. I went back a few days later in the week. We'd had beautiful 80-degree days, with spotty thundershowers in the early evenings a couple of times. And to my delight I found this. Natasha's congestion out front, which used to be almost DOUBLE of Boris', was now not even half the size of bees hanging out on Boris' doorstep. Seeing is believing. The extra space and ventillation DOES work. I will add another shim for another inch for Natasha. And I'm definitely building a two-inch-tall slatted rack for Boris (hopefully this weekend). Amazing what a bit of air and space can do. Maybe I can keep that in mind for myself, too, and take more time enjoying the spring breezes.
Hari Ohm!