Getting the hives ready

My sister, JoAnne, gave me 2 hive boxes with 20 frames. 

Jim built a base with slide-out flashing (for cleaning), a top and a screenboard.

The bees will enter on top of the screen. The holes are too small for the bees but small hive beetles will fall through. I will put a bit of crisco and borax on the flashing to trap and kill the beetles. I can slide it out from the back of the hive to scrape it off. I am going to try organic or natural beekeeping.

Here is the base with the flashing and screen board.

10 frames will rest on the ledge in the front and rear of the hive body.

Part of the frames had foundation. It is designed to get bees to build bigger cells..thus growing bigger bees for more honey production. I am going to try natural beekeeping….no medicines or pesticides etc. and I want to let them build their cells the size that they want to…

so I removed the foundation, sanded off any debris and hopefully removed any chemicals that may have been used in the past. I then glued thin strips of wood in the top to act as a starter bar so they will build along the center of the frame.

I don’t think the hive or frames have been used in many years, other than when I had the small swarm a few months ago.

Everything has been painted white. I would love to have different colors but the hot sun here in Florida might make them too hot. Maybe the next hive will have just a tiny hint of color to it though.

Once the frames are in place an inner cover is put on top of them to provide some air space between them and the cover.

Here it is assembled.

If I am real lucky….catch a swarm, and they survive, and raise lots of bees and need more room for honey…then I add a super with 10 more frames…and so on….

Do I sound like I know what I’m doing? I wish….I have been reading everything I can find on “organic” or “natural” beekeeping, but I need some hands on experience.

Now that Jim has the woodstove all installed and working….

I am going to see if we can build a Top Bar Hive.

Jim says I am stuck on “B’s”    Birds, Boats, Butterflies and Bees.