![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/IMAG0621.jpg\" "\\"IMAG0621\\"")
<\/a>Schmidt noticed the height of my tower ‘a honey and wondered about wind knocking it over, but the height produces another kind of problem as well. \u00a0A happy problem in the end, but a sweat inducing, sting evoking problem in the here and now.<\/p>\nOut of 6 honey supers on top of the three hive boxes, four are full. \u00a0Honey, basically water, weighs more than 8.5 pounds per gallon. \u00a0Each of these full supers weighs in close to 50 pounds. Therein the happy and the sad of it.<\/p>\n
The happy is 200 pounds of honey! \u00a0The sad is lifting 200 pounds of honey! \u00a0Plus some.<\/p>\n
Here’s the deal. \u00a0The recommendation is to treat for mites and to do it now in August, with the honey supers on. \u00a0That means using a food grade miticide, one that won’t harm the honey in any way. \u00a0Which means less potent. \u00a0Which is good as far as I’m concerned. \u00a0The idea is that we rid the colony of mites in August, then the brood turns over after the nectar flow and produces mite free bees for overwintering. \u00a0Mites reduce the bees capacity to overwinter. \u00a0By a lot.<\/p>\n
So. \u00a0O.K. \u00a0I decided yes. I’ll do that. \u00a0When I went to buy the one treatment and done (taken today and the point of all this hooha)<\/p>\n Now we get to the problem. \u00a0Each of those honey supers has to come off and sit somewhere while I put the hopguard strips in the hiveboxes. \u00a0So, that’s 200+ pounds off and set aside. \u00a0It also means moving two of the three hiveboxes off and back on. \u00a0They weigh substantially more than a full honey super.<\/p>\n Thanks to the Canadian leakage as Paul Douglas calls it the weather is about as good as it’s reasonable to expect: \u00a070 degrees with a dewpoint of 50. \u00a0But. \u00a0By the time I finished schlepping honey supers the sweat had begun to run. \u00a0Down into my eyes.<\/p>\n Physically moving these boxes is right at or a bit more than I can do easily. \u00a0That’s ok, for (an improvised super holding device. \u00a0also taken today)<\/p>\n Anyhow, I got all that done, got the honey supers back on and was feeling good. \u00a0Until I saw the queen excluder resting on the hiveboxes. \u00a0The queen excluder goes between the hiveboxes and the honey supers to prevent the queen from laying eggs in the supers. \u00a0Oh. My. \u00a0You can insert here words you use when you realize you have shot yourself in your own foot.<\/p>\n That’s right. \u00a0I now had to remove the supers a second time, put on the queen excluder and put them all back on again. \u00a0Well, that’s all done and finished until next Wednesday. \u00a0When I do it all over again. \u00a0Except, I hope, for that queen excluder part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lughnasa \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0State Fair Moon Oh. \u00a0My. \u00a0Just came back from a wrestling match with an angry superorganism. \u00a0Bill Schmidt noticed the height of my … Continue reading Bee Diary: 8\/7\/2013<\/span> <\/a>product, miteaway, my dealer was out. \u00a0He had instead hopguard. \u00a0Hopguard requires two strips in each of three hiveboxes (the big ones on the bottom that hold the colony and its honey stores for the winter). \u00a0That’s one week’s treatment and the full treatment requires three weeks.<\/p>\n<\/a>the most part, but it does mean that I can’t make the slow, deliberate motions that keep the bees calm. So, by the time I got to the hiveboxes I couldn’t see out of one eye and had to squat and lift with my legs to budge them. \u00a0I’m not even going to mention the slippery hopguard strips that would not slide easily between the frames.<\/p>\n