Ventilation holes up top, Pre-Duct-Taping
Duct-Taped Ventilation Holes. Ready to ride out the storm!
With the impending storm, I have finally gotten enough pressure to clean up the roof and tie down anything loose with a bungee cord. The hives have always been storm proofed, tied down to four concrete blocks with two cargo ratcheting straps. Along with about 100+ lbs of honey, the hives are not going anywhere.
Since Hive A had the modification from last check-in (where I doubled up on the top ventilation shims to accommodate the beautiful work of “freestyle” combs they created right off the inner cover), I sealed up all of the ventilation holes on the shims. The hive still has the main ventilation in the inner cover and bottom screen board has not been covered up, so I hope that should be enough ventilation but keep the water and wind out during the storm.
Freestlyin’ Inner-Cover
I confess, I still have not prepped the hives for the winter.
My main decision in making sure that the bees survive the winter, is to not harvest at all this year.
Kickstarter sponsors: Please bear with us as we are setting ourselves up for a good, plentiful summer harvest in 2013.
Before the first frost, my intention is to create a new shim for Hive B, so that there is enough space to insert a chunk of dry sugar in there. For Hive A, I’ll insert the sugar next to the freestyle combs, which are only covering about 50% of the inner cover. The freestyle combs look like the combs in a top bar hive or skeps. Next year, I plan to cut the combs out and tie them to frames, but for now, they look too beautiful for me to mess with them.
I laid out a whole lot of intentions and plans, but the bees usually laugh at all of them, and I usually have to invent something new…
May everyone and their bees stay safe.
Here’s a glob of propolis I scraped out in the last check-in. For good luck.
Gob-O-Propolis from last check-in for good luck
UPDATE: The honeybees made it through Sandy!!!
Queens Apiary 
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