Foundationless Frames Update: Day 19

Here are the pictures from Day 19.  Much of the brood is now capped.

Day 19

Up close:

They LOVE the Pumpkin Blossoms in the Morning

Good Morning from Spokane!

We are having a cool morning with temps the low 60's with a clear blue sky. It is quite beautiful.
I headed out to enjoy a brief cup of coffee when I noticed that the raised bed garden, which is completely "volunteer" this year, has some amazing pumpkins growing there.  They are trying to take over the yard - like a scene from the movie, "Little Shop of Horrors".  Their blossoms are an intense yellow/orange and are usually opened up to seemingly gather the warmth of the sun.  The bees are crazy for them and they appear to 'squabble' over access to the flowers.

Beautiful Pumpkin Blossoms

Here is an up close shot and  you can really see the 'messy' pollen all over the bee.  I've read that this effect may come about due to the static charge the bee develops as it flies.  Sort of  like that junior high trick with the balloon with your hair. The plant's charge is grounded and this allow the effect of the pollen grains 'jumping' onto the bee as it lands.  

Amazing moment

Foundationless Frame Experiment: Day 7

Hello to Everyone!
... and a special shout out to my followers from the EU!  Thanks for visiting!

I was very eager to see how the bees reacted to my "foundationless" frame with small starter strip.  So, today after 7 days I opened up this active hive to take a look.  As you can see they have built this up quite nicely. The queen has been very busy in this new comb as well.  If you look to the left most edge of the comb you can see the 'original' starter strip.

7 days later !

Check out that new brood too...

Eggs and Young Larvae

So, with this experience I have decided to try this approach with another strong nuc.  This nuc started off with me about 2 months ago.  It was a single frame with capped brood on it.  I just let it grow in this 4 frame nuc box until today.  It was crammed!  I sprayed them with my lemon grass 1:1 sugar syrup to get them to calm down and move down into the box.  They were not too happy with me opening the lid!

Nuc Full !

New Box - "Before"

I had previously set up the new box that they were going to be placed in.  I used 2 more 'foundationless' frames, checker boarding them between the 4  original frames.  These were packed with brood, especially capped brood that will be emerging soon.

Frames inserted - Hive returned to its original location

Nearby Wild Flowering Plants and Pollinators!

On our dog walks around and along the Spokane river we can see many flowering plants that provide food for our native pollinators and honey bees too.

Here is a 'wild' alfalfa plant growing along the edge of the Centennial Trail.

Single Alfalfa Plant with many Honey Bees working it

It is not nice to stick your tongue out while being photographed!

Mystery Plant?  

This appears to be a 'Vipers Bugloss' Echium Vulgare plant but I'm not completely sure.  The blue purple flower is nearly iridescent in it's color intensity.  Here there were lots of Bumble Bees working this plant!   

Vipers Bugloss?

Here a closer view of the blossoms.

Flowering Bugloss?

 

 

Here is a closeup of a Bumble Bombus Apidae?  working the blossom.  They appear to stick their entire fat heads into the blossom.  They seem to fly around with their tongues hanging out as well.

"Foundationless" Frame Experiment - Day One

I've been reading quite a bit about using "Foundationless" frames as a way to allow the bees to draw their comb 'naturally' with the correct size they prefer.  In the past,  I have made mistakes with regards to beespace and they have gone wild making their own comb and they created a huge mess for me.  So, it is very important that they have a guide to get started.  In this picture you can see that I simply took a small strip of surplus wax and tacked it in with some Elmers glue, using the top bar groove as a guide.

Standard Deep Frame

This hive started out a month ago in a small 4 frame breeder Nuc.  It was getting congested and the queen was getting busy.  I wanted to provide her more room to grow and to give young bees 'something to do' in terms of wax production.  The drawn and filled with the green paint you see is a foundationless one that I setup last year.  I paint these to give me a clue when I open up the hive.

Frame of new brood

This brood will be hatching out soon so I 'checkerboarded' it with the new frame.

1st New Frame Added

 Now the new frame is snugged up with the existing one to obey 'beespace'

I repeated this for the next frame.  Now there are two new foundationless frames inserted into this young colony.  I will come back in a week to check on their progress.  The nectar flow is still on here in town so I expect a good build up

2nd New Frame is added