Bristol Bee Workshop 06/05

We weren't sure it was going to happen due to the weather (ugh, has it really been awful weather all month!?) but we had our first workshop at a fellow beekeeper's house. Her name is Beth, and Joe, one of our instructors in class (the one that scared the bejeebers out of us when he announced a "quiz" based on our reading...he was kidding!) led the inspection.

Beth is NOT a first year beekeeper. She's got several hives, including a new package and a nuc, but the most impressive hive was the giant hive!! Check out the little gadget to the left of the hive Joe is working. It's this frame holder that you drape over the side of the chamber that holds the frames you pull. I want one. It would make life a LOT easier.



Joe worked all the hives, saving the big one for last.
He pointed out the drone comb, which was enlightening and comforting because Joel has the same thing on his hive (I haven't seen a single drone cell yet).


Joe also showed us a frame with a good "pattern" on it. You're supposed to see capped honey on the top, then a band of pollen, then brood (or empty cells if they have hatched and the queen hasn't filled them yet).

Then, because the hive is obviously giant, he taught us how to perform a "walkaway split." I will not be able to articulate it well because I don't remember the whole thing, but basically you are splitting the hive in two so it doesn't swarm, so you can create a queen, or so you can build another hive. Joe basically pulled a bunch of frames with fresh eggs, larva and honey, brushed off all the bees (to make sure the queen was NOT on the frames), and stuck them in a chamber on top of this screen gadget called the queen excluder (because the queen can't go through it).

The nurse bees (the "babysitters") make their way back to the brood, you move them with one more frame of fresh eggs from the old hive, and they make a new queen from those eggs.

After a while the bees started getting very irritated in the big hive, and they started to beard. What a sight!





It was very informative. One of the big things I noticed was the speed and efficiency with which Joe worked. I am always trying to get through inspection without killing any bees (go ahead, ask me how many times that's happened), but he just didn't worry about it. Another thing I noticed was that he didn't worry so much about a little bit of burr comb. I usually scrape every last speck out of the hives when I'm in there. He just lets it go unless it's really an impediment.