I finally replaced the brood frame with foundation in the observation hive. Yeepee! I had put it off as long as I possibly could. I made all kinds of excuses for not doing the thing I should have done a month and a half ago. First, I was not feeling well, then it was too hot, after that, I was going to let my young protegee help me so she would get some more experience in an area that she has not been in yet. All this was to be on a Saturday. But that didn’t work out as she had company, then I was  on a bee talk, then it was Mother’s day weekend and she was out of town, then it sprinkled enough that I called it off, then she didn’t answer the phone, and so forth and so on. I really needed to work the OBH so today I did it.

The bees had plugged the two frames with honey and left no empty cells for the queen to lay eggs in. The top frame was capped and I decided today to remove the capped honey and put it outside for the bees to rob and put the brood frame up stairs so the bees could finish the honey and cap it out.

I had a frame already put together with a Duragilt foundation ready for  installation. For those of you who have an inquisitive mind, Duragilt is a very thin piece of wax coated plastic that has been ran through the imprinter that has two pieces of metal, tin I think, on the two narrow  sides.  The imprinter embosses the starter cells  for the bees to built the comb upon. I really don’t use that kind of foundation anymore, but I have a box of it left so I use it occasionally for emergencies.

Let’s get back to the story. After putting the brood frame into the bottom section of the observation hive, I then proceeded to put the top story back on the stack and snapped it together with screen door latches. I really looked for the queen, but there were so many bees everywhere that I didn’t find her. I would really prefer to get her marked so the kids would stop asking where she is and I wouldn’t have to say, ” I don’t know”. I would just say, “She is marked, find her.”

But alas! I didn’t find her and I really don’t think I will be tearing down the OBH before the honey is capped. And at that time, I will probably just replace the top frame and let it go at that. hehe

By the way, I have gotten one of my other observation hives fairly cleaned and almost ready to put some bees in. My partner in bee talks and I could have used the extra OBH today as the 4H leader split us up to do two different age groups. We only had one hive between us and I got it for the k-2 grades. His older students didn’t get to see the bees today and that was a bummer for them. But maybe the next time.

Okay, I have to get outside and make sure the bees are working on the new foundation and make sure that most of them are in the hive, so I’ll talk to you later and give you a  report on the meeting tomorrow.

Good night and have a good weekend.