During today's inspection, I added a 5th body, so they have more than 2 medium hive bodies of free room. I expect not to open the hive in the next month.
I pulled out a frame from the third box, and my wife took a picture:
This was frame #3. All the other frames closer to center were cross-combed. Talking with other foundationless beekeepers, it appears the Lang is not suited to foundationless, because of its excessive frame spacing of 35mm. Some Warre beeks space their top bars by 32mm. At 35mm, the bees will likely crosscomb, even if the combs are started as nicely centered in the frame as the one in the photo.
I also noticed that I have some bees that are smaller. The bees may be regressing, which would make the 35mm standard spacing oversized.
Beside that, the hive is doing great. I found the smoker works better with dried grass, I actually smoked too much this time.
Next inspection should happen early August, unless some event required intervention.
Hi Andre, nice blog. Be careful about leaving too much space. You'll be inviting trouble if the bees have too much open space to protect. You should come share some of your experiences with us over at the Beekeeping Forums. Looks like your doing some interesting things with foundation-less hives. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Charles,
ReplyDeleteI took your advise and put an entrance reducer, thanks. I'll check the Beekeeping forums, thanks for the invite.