Too much honey in this hive! Full Bee Hive service on a "supered-up" hive.

Full Hive service on "Supered up" hive

Kristie (QueenBeeSA) visits a client in the heat of the South Coast.
Riz, who owns 9 of her own hives, stays on a litchi farm, surrounded by other flowering trees like the macadamia and mango as well as sugarcane fields. Lovely for tropical variation of honey.

Kristie is going to show Riz, how to correctly service and maintain her hives.

Tip no.1: Inner boards. Kristie says that these inner boards are a big no due to the fact that they can sometimes be a trap for ants, as well snakes and lizards which can me dangerous for you and your bees.

Once the inner board is removed, we can see just how beautifully this hive is working in the super.

Tip no.2 : when smoking your super it is important not to use a lot of smoke as your honey will absorb that smoke and end up ruining the flavour.

Kristie pulls out a single super frame of fully capped light honey. Remember to look for roughly 80-100% capped frames before harvesting your super.

Tip no.3: best idea is to put what's know as a "wet" super back on your hive. A "wet" super is simply a spun out super that still has the comb in the frames. This allows for the bees to fill it with honey a lot quicker.

Tip no.4: always make sure to clean your Queen Excluder ( https://bushveldbees.co.za/product/qu... ). If your excluder is full of gunk, it can damage your bees' wings.


other note...
Remember you, as the beekeeper need to know what you're looking for in the hive and how to manage the situation. Make sure to watch our introduction video (    • Bushveld Bees Introduction to Beekeeping c...   ) (    • Intro to South African 🇿🇦 Beekeeping 🐝   )

Tip no.5: when cutting out drone brood, it is recommended to use a sharp thin knife and to cut along the wires so as to not damage the frame. It is important to cut away from the hive so that you dont leak anything into your hive.

Kristie points our a Queen Cell, more specifically a swarming Queen Cell. And we know this is a swarming cell because it is on the edge of the comb.

Kristie point out that this hive needs more space. So she makes the decision to replace 3 brood frames of honey with 3 new frames.
This will give the queen more room lay and the hive more room to work.

To finish off this hive service, Kristie bumps the bees off the super and closes the hive

Thats it for today's episode. Be sure to subscribe to our channel ( https://youtube.com/@bushveldbees1884... ) for more hive services and make sure to check out our website ( www.bushveldbees.co.za) for any interesting updates