Sunday, March 27, 2011

March 27th Colony Adjustments

I've decided to transfer one of my strong colonies into a Langstroth poly hive. I tried this late last year without much success. However this time I've taken a different approach.


I started by shifting the National hive to one side, so I could turn the hive stand round 90' and place a wooden board down so the feet of the poly hive had a good base. I then put the poly hive on top and carefully arranged the frames before adding a ply wood template ( as the langstroth hive is longer than a national the ply board will be used as a temporary roof) before putting the National back on top.


-  Template shown stood up so you can see the over all size and the large hole in it.

-  National Hive Brood + Super for 14x12 frames


-  Template shown between the two chambers

-  Langstroth deep brood chamber and floor


The aim is to allow the colony to expand downwards over time. Once they have drawn out enough of the Langstroth frames I will insert a queen excluder and a frame of brood below so the queen has no choice but to use the lower chamber.


Here is a picture I took from a distance two days later as I didn't have my bee suit.