Warre, Baby! – Downward Motion! – Nadiring!

The watched warre never goes downward?  After a 2 week vacation and a week and a half where I couldn’t get out to Queen Juju Bee’s hive, I returned to find her in pretty immediate need of nadir – after not having anything in the bottom box at last check.

 

Upstairs and downstairs full!

 

 

Lots of hot bees – even in the late, late afternoon!

 

So nadiring happened!!!  

The top box was SO HEAVY!  I love that.  

I never wear the full suit except when it’s so hot that I’m wearing shorts…which is maybe paradoxical.  Also, I feel like a ghost buster.  I really like the traditional face mask better than the fencing style, but either way.  Who ya gonna call?

 

 

Three high and about to get the roof put back on!

And, I don’t have honey yet – but I have another sweet reward in the interim – there’s a black raspberry bush about 4 feet from the hive.  I’m up to 6 pints of jam (and counting).

Nadiring the Warre!

Today, I suited up and nadired the warre. Look at my grouchy face! It’s really hot and I was not wanting to put that thing on.

I sprayed sugar water in the entrance, took the lid off and them tried to pick up the top box (and a half). It didn’t go so well. I’m a pretty strong girl, but it didn’t budge….so I got out the hive tool and crammed it in there (gently) and wiggled it around in a few spots. I knew there was probably some burr comb connecting the two boxes.

Once I got the box off and set it on the ladder (I thought that would make a good box-stand, give the girls room to fly out), I made the split second decision to add the new box between the original 1st and 2nd. There are a few reasons for this:

1)There’s no comb in the bottom box yet, so there’s no box order to worry about.

2) The burr comb and other happy, home-smelling things that the bees may have left behind on the top boards of the 2nd box (formerly the floor of the 1st box) will hopefully coax them into the new box as those things are now on the floor of that box (and not comfortably close at the bottom of the full box they are not wanting to leave).

3) The returning foragers and the bucket brigade that brings pollen up into the hive was all down in the 1st box…so I thought it best to leave them be.

I quickly restacked the hive, no need to keep the hive open any longer than necessary, put the lid back on, and backed off.

I peeked out again about two hours later (and did some work in the roof garden) they seem to have returned to normal, they didn’t seem perturbed by my presence, and then as I was leaving, I watched them fight off a yellow jacket. Go, girls, go!

I won’t get out there again until Saturday, but hopefully by then they’ll be working on comb in the new #2 box.