Disaster in brood chamber #2 06/07/09

Today was a disaster. Well, nearly a disaster anyway. At Sandy's inspection last week, she had thrown her second brood chambers on already. Joel put his on a week ago. Mine hadn't gone on until the 3rd of June, four days prior to when this post occurred. When I threw on the second chamber, I couldn't find the staple gun to finish the frames (you have to lock the foundation in), I couldn't find the pins you use to attach the foundation to the sides of the frame, and I was in a hurry so I wouldn't be late to pick up my older daughter from school. Even though you're supposed to go at LEAST a week between inspections, I decided I wanted to peek into that second chamber just to make sure things were going ok.

I'm glad I did.

Apparently, the tacks I used in lieu of staples were NOT a feasible substitute. I was missing pieces of frames, the foundation was all mangled and warped, and completely out of the frames in several instances.


Problem was, the bees were now in the second chamber and working on a couple of frames. Egads.

So what was supposed to be a short inspection lasted about an hour and a half with my fixing the frames as best I could. I located the staple gun and the pins and pulled the frames one by one, shaking the bees off it as much as I was able to before working it.

In some cases the bees actually tried to fix the problem themselves by fusing the foundation to the frame. This had mixed results. Half the built frames had burr comb on them.



These are the pins that go in the sides of the frames. They are kind of a pain in the neck to put in (especially on frames where the bees and/or cells and/or honey are already plentiful), but they do keep the foundation in place much better.


I thought this was cute...it was a solitary pollen-filled cell in new comb.


In the end, it was fixed, I didn't get stung, and I felt much better about the second chamber. But boy am I glad I went in to inspect!!