Getting Ready!!!!!!!!

February is the last month in Central Florida to prepare for the up coming beekeeping year. It was a beekeeping chores weekend.... here is what I accomplished.
I ordered two new M01691G VIZ PLASTIC HIVE STAND/VENTILATED BOTTOM BOARD, and two new Deep Beemax hives from Dadant.com. The hive stand aids with the Florida heat/humidity and the moats control the ants.

The Beemax hives insulate, are light weight, and will not warp in the humidity. Below is a picture of the dove tail joint. From experience it is better to assemble thm, and then paint them.

Using Beemax hives is rather untraditional, but here is a good example of what wood does in the Florida humidity. This is the top of a wooden frame I purchased last year. Plastic frames and hives may be unorthodox, but so are bees in the back yard.

I also put together two NUCs following the plans on beesouce.com. There is something very rewarding about building your own stuff. Below I’m practicing a lesson learned from last year. YOu need to make sure both the wooden and plastic frames don’t fit snuggly in the NUC. Also leave extra room for the wood frames to expand; otherwise they may not fit later on.

I like my tops and bottoms to flare out an inch or two.

First coat of paint drying, I like the new color. The yellow gallon is not gone; I’m just looking to add some more color out at the bee garden. This gallon of paint came from the reject shelf at Home Depot, I wonder if it was mixed incorrectly or someone thought this color would had look good on/in their house. Their loss my cheap gain.

Last chore of the day was inspecting the NUC that has been housed in the 10 frame box. I wanted to make sure these ladies had enough to eat after the cold spell we had. When I brought this NUC home, I just placed it on top of my hive stand. Watch the video to see me remove the traveling/double screen bottom. I removed the top to make the hive lighter, then I place a thin sheet of fiberglass to keep everyone inside until it had been moved, kill some small hive beetle with my hive tool, and finally I inspected it.

Here are some cool pictures from the inspection. The neat assortments of rainbow yellow colors are pollen,

there is also a lot of uncap nectar,

and good laying patterns.

Here is how the hive stands now. I had some extra honey from last season, and since it is low on honey/nectar stores …… It is getting fed.

Next weekend, my eager NUC joins the ten frame Hive club.