Hive 09 [France, Martinique]

[moa972]

Hello,

I'm newly arrived in this forum but I follow this website since beginning.
Excuse my poor english, I'm a french

I build a small hive in decembre 2017. In Martinique, the honey season begin in january. i don't have colony to put into the hive but I hope to find a new one, in a few weeks.

I'll post any pictures of the hive in next post.

[moa972]

hello,

The Hive 9 is ready to go.
I put an average swarm in the hive on 25 february in the morning.
the swarm was collected in a plastic trash on third floor of a residence on 24 february evening.

Picture and video will follow...

[moa972]

hello,

here a picture of the small hive 9 taken on 22 february 2018 when I put a swarm in it.
The hive have a roof but not showed in the picture.
I don't use wax to make a start on top of the hive. I prefer use triangular section peace of wood. I hope this little difference will not perturbe your experience in your SMALLHIVE project

[moa972]

here two links to see videos on introduction of the swarm into the hive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA9wID4RZmY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6VtMRydro4

[smallhiveproject]

Well done !

I prefer use triangular section peace of wood. I hope this little difference will not perturbe your experience in your SMALLHIVE project

If necessary, you may modify the initial hive design to some degree. Make sure to mention and explain all your modifications in respect to the original hive design presented on this website.

[moa972]

Hello,

any news, I put the second extension last week because bees start to construct some wax on the last section.
The repartition of the brood seems to be good, and I hope to see the colony to be in a great expension in a few weeks.

[moa972]

hello,

Add pictures inside the hive a week ago :

[moa972]

hello,

here some new pictures taken on 9th May 2018.
the hive is crowded by bees, and frames a larger than a month ago.

[smallhiveproject]

Nice to see your bees are doing fine.

Let me make a remark:
You added the honey frame ("extention") when the bees just had started building comb in the back of the hive. As wee can see now, the bees instantely stoped building comb in the back of the hive but readily expanded combs in the honey frame. This is exactely what I expected bees to behave. Let's see if bees will expand combs in the back of the hive once the honey frame is completely expanded.

I have some questions:
(1) Did you manage to close the back of the hive without crushing bees ?
(2) You did not use a queen excluder between the hive body and the honey frame. How do you plan to harvest honey later ?
(3) Is comb spacing 35 mm in the hive body, and 38 mm in the honey frame and the back of the hive ?

[moa972]

hello,

Yes, bees stopped construction in the back frame since I add a new frame beetwen brood and the back of the hive. I didn't opend the hive since the last time. i'll post new pictures of the Inside later.

(1) Did you manage to close the back of the hive without crushing bees ?
I'm so sorry, bees were really angry when I opened the hive.
I didn't use smoke to quite them and when I closed the hive, I think I killed a few of them.

(2) You did not use a queen excluder between the hive body and the honey frame. How do you plan to harvest honey later ?
I didn"t used a queen excluder because it's my phylosophy I don't want to harvest honey if bees need it. Naturally, bees stock excedent honey in lateral frames (in hive with horizontal expansion). in those frames the is only honey. If the frame have honey and brood I don't touch it. I have a lot of hive and I collect honey only for my personal uses.

(3) Is comb spacing 35 mm in the hive body, and 38 mm in the honey frame and the back of the hive ?
I respected the sizes in your plans. The only difference were on the top start of the comb. i used triangular piece of wood to force bees to construct in the right direction.