Here's my brand new three hive stand!

So it was in March that I ordered a new custom built hive stand from a local welding and machine shop. With my backyard apiary expanding (the girls are doing it on their own) - I had to order a durable stand that could hold multiple hives. With the help of Wesley Amos of Amos Welding and Machine Shop in Reidsville, we put our heads together to come up with a large enough stand to hold multiple hives and stand up against time and the elements. Wesley built my first hive stand two years ago, so I knew he was up to the task. This new hive stand will hold three booming colonies.

This past weekend was nice enough that I could get out and get my new stand ready. So with brush and roller in hand, I made sure there were no rust posts anywhere, then applied multiple coats of Rustoleum paint to seal the surface. I used the same paint on my first stand, which holds two hives, and with the exception of a few minor spots thats popped up in two years, the metal paint works like a charm.

Once the paint was fully dry, the task was to dig the eight holes to plant the legs in the ground. Each leg has a "foot" or metal plate on the bottom to keep it from sinking deeper into the soil, but to keep it from sinking at all, I poured Quikrete (concrete) around the legs and let it set for 24 hours to make sure it cured. After the concrete is cured and hardened, you can then put the dirt back to fill in the holes.

Let me add that you need to use a carpenter's level to make sure everything is..level. You want a slight decline in the front so any water from rain or snow or hive moisture will drip out the front and stay out of the hive. Other than the slight decline in the front, the stand is level side-to-side. That took me awhile to get it that way since the stand is so wide, but once I finally got it set, I poured the Quikrete around the legs and then the water and left it alone.

Once the concrete set up and the dirt was filled in, it was time to move my first hive to its new home. Since the yellow hive had a brand new package of bees who were basically building comb and little else, I decided to move them. I picked up the light hive and made the short trip to its new home. When I first hived this colony, I used a solid wood bottom board, but really like using screened bottom board. So I moved the hive, transferred the frames over to the second yellow hive body, and got ready to close eveything back up and leave the girls alone. After all, they already had a busy week of being hived and now moving to a new location. Talk about confusing!

Being that the girls were moved, and thinking that some of the foragers may be confused, I placed a piece of bamboo over the entrance. That's so they would re-orient themselves to their new location. And to catch any that may have gone to the old location, I put a carboard nuc there and sure enough, I caught about a handful of them and took them over to their new abode. The "obstruction over the entrance" trick works. I've used it a couple of times with great success. It forces the foragers to re-orient themselves to the area (after all..there wasn't a tree in the front door before) -- so chances are they will find their way back home. Try it if you have to move a hive.

So here it is, my new three hive stand. You can see that its close enough to my other hives so I can just go back and forth when needed. That should really come in handy when having to transfer frames and supplies between hives. And its very close to my storage building where I keep all my beekeeping supplies. I intentionally set it at an angle to keep the bees from the green and orange hive from slamming into the new bees when crossing flight paths. Will it work? I don't know, but in my head it will. Guess we'll see!

Here's the dimensions of my new hive stand. Remember it will hold three hives (especially heavy hives in winter when packed with honey). Each hive will sit in a 2 foot by 2-1/2 foot square on top of the stand.

Side to side length: 6 feet wide
Depth: 2-1/2 feet deep
Leg length: 24 inches (I bury mine. You could make them shorter.)
Top: Heavy gauge grated steel mesh (Proper ventilation.)
Body: Heavy gauge angled steel
Construction: Welded
Paint: Rustoleum

Feel free to use my plans or tailor them for your own bee yard. And happy beekeeping my friends!

More coming on my adventures with a "piping" queen in my own hive!

New equipment for an expanding apiary!

Tis the season for beekeeping equipment. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to pick up a couple more complete hives to add to my backyard apiary. And to hold my new colonies, I just received my custom-built, all steel, three hive stand. It was built by a local welding shop, Amos Welding, and built to my specifications. Its 6 feet wide, 2 1/2 feet deep, and sits 24 inches off the ground. Click on the picture and you can see the heavy duty screen that covers the top (which combined with screened bottom board will aid in ventilation), and the legs have "feet" on the bottoms to keep them from sinking into the ground. The steel is heavy grade so it will safely hold the hives..even at their heaviest when full of honey honey in the fall.

Once it receives two coats of metal paint, I'll locate it at the back of my property and in close proximity to my current hives. I'll use post-hole diggers to plant the legs in the ground, then once its leveled, I'll use some Quikrete to secure the stand. Once it sets, I'll be able to locate my new colonies at their new home.

I have to have everything ready by April 11th when my new 3-pound package of bees arrives at Dadant and Sons. That will take one space. Then I'll use another space when I split the orange hive. Then the third will be ready to go for any swarms I may catch this spring. And if I get more swarms, I'm already thinking about alternate locations. After all, I have to keep the neighbors happy too!        

You can see my hives from high in the sky thanks to Google!

Well what do you know?  Google has changed their newest satellite maps in my area and now you can actually see the bee hives behind my house!

The older images that Google used before were seriously outdated.  They were really fuzzy and it was tough to make out the details about my area.  But they obviously decided to do an update sometime since mid-March of this year because my outbuilding, which is located at the lower end of my property, was finished when the image was made.

If you click on the photo above, you can see my house as it looks high in the sky.  You can see my house, then my outbuilding -- and just to the upper right of the building -- you see my hives.  And of you look really close, albeit a little fuzzy, you can even make out three bee hives.  I believe the glow from the hives is the sun's reflection from the sheet metal of the hive covers.  And if you look just beyond my hives, you can see the creek that my bees use for their honey and to cool the hives in the hot, humid summer months in North Carolina.

Looking at the image, I have to wonder if that's the view my girls see when they make their orientation flights to learn where home is?  Is that the sight they see when they come home after a long day of foraging?

Google is getting really good with the technology they use these days.  Before you know it, they'll get so good, you'll be able to make out the bees as they come and go from their hives!

If you want to see if you can find your house and even your hives, click on the link above and play around with it.  Its pretty simple to use and fun too.

UPDATE: The new queens are out and things look good so far...

"And...they're off!" That's what comes to mind after inspecting my two new colonies on Saturday and finding what you see to the left...empty queen cages. I admit that I was prepared for them to be out of the cages and inside the hives. But would they be accepted by the bees in those colonies? That seemed to be the issue for me.

Why? As I discussed in my previous posts, the green hive had gone from swarm cells to supersedure cells -- then those disappeared and suddenly I had a laying worker on my hands. So while technically queenless, my concern was that acceptance would be a huge issue since one of the worker bees was now laying eggs and trying to save the hive. But after doing a "shake" and removing every bee from every frame and then introducing a new mated queen, I think I took care of that issue. She's out and doing fine.

The orange hive, the newest, wasn't much of a real concern since they were queenless for 24-hours before I put the queen cage in. I moved bees and brood over from the mother hive, then waited till the next day to put her and her attendants in. So I wasn't all that concerned that acceptance would be much of an issue for this hive.

As you can see, that's one of the newest monarchs introduced to my apiary. She's Carniolan, so she's darker than her adopted daughters from the other hive which are Italian. And she was born this year and this is a blue year for queen markings. This is the queen in the orange hive and believe it or not, she's already laying. I found new eggs in the cells and she has a consistent pattern so I think she will do fine. The queen in the green hive isn't laying yet, least I don't think do. A few of the frames in that hive had been used by the laying worker, so she doen't have a lot of empty space there now. But she was out and crawling across the frame and looked great.


Since the frames in the lower deeps are already drawn out, I decided now is the time to give these girls some room to expand. So to match the yellow hive, I added a second deep with nine frames and one drone frame, and on top of those I added feeders with 1:1 syrup to help them draw comb. Considering that both of the new hives have plenty of workers, that should give them something to do and keep them occupied.

I admit I am a little concerned about the orange hive though. It doesn't seem to have the coming and going traffic like the other two hives, and I've noticed ants crawling up the sides and occasionally in the entrance. But its only been a week for them now. The good thing I did notice was that one of the guards chased some of the ants out, so maybe they're settling in to make this their home. I also noticed an nasty earwig (which I smushed) in the corner of one of the frames, and I believe that's became the hive is sitting on cinderblocks. I'll eventually move it over to a steel stand like the others sit on, but I have to wait for the city to finish some clean-up work on the creek behind the house. Then I plan to relocate the hives to a more level location just a few feet away.

So that's my update. Things seem to be okay so far, and I'll check them again this coming weekend to see if they're on track.

Bee cool!

Getting ready for spring! My new building and painting hives...

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. The last couple of weeks have been really busy and I'm trying to get ready for the new beekeeping season, so that means I've had my hands full. So here's an update on my building and getting ready for spring.

My storage building is finally finished! After a month of delays, mostly weather related, the crew came to my house and had it up in a week. They actually had the four walls and roof up in three days, but with the windows and doors and the shingles and paint, it took a full week. But I'm not complaining. It looks great and I'm already putting stuff in there. All of my beekeeping supplies are there along with my yard tools, and I still have plenty of room for other goodies too. To be honest, I'm a little afraid that with all of that new space available, my storage building could end up like my garage...no room for anything. But I've made a pact with myself that I'll keep it neat and orderly...and we'll see how long that will last.

I did an inspection last last week and found my hive alive and doing very well. The sugar I poured on the wax paper and placed on top of the frames was halfway gone, the girls had eaten through the bottom and made a large hole in the sugar and had taken over half of it away. I really wasn't expecting that but its good to see that the method works and I won't hesitate to use it again next winter if needed. 

The top and bottom deeps were really active with a lot of bees. To be honest, it was a nice surprise. It took a few minutes but I finally pried one of the end frames out to see that the girls had seriously used up their winter store of honey. I also found three frames that still had honey, but all the other frames were completely empty and the cells cleaned up. As I pulled up some of the frames, I found where the queen had laid eggs in the burr comb. In that burr comb, I found larvae in all stages...so she's already busy at work getting ready for the spring. I figured she would be working since the daytime temperatures here are now in the 60s and those bees out foraging have been bringing in a lot of pollen. They're even storing the pollen all through the frames, its a yellow-greenish pollen they've put in cell after cell. One frame was completely covered on one side, and they were seriously working on the other side.

So after taking the top and bottom boxes apart and cleaning up all the burr comb (and there was a LOT of it) I put some 1:1 syrup in the feeder to get them through the next few weeks. Since there's no nectar sources available now and they can still starve, I decided to give them some thin syrup. After I put the feed bag on, I closed up shop. I'll go back at the end of this week to make sure they're doing okay with the syrup and that things look okay under the hood.

In preparation for splitting this hive, which I plan to do when the weather stays calm and I can get my hands on another queen, I've already painted the second hive. As you can see, its a very bright yellow. I figure that since my two hives will sit side-by-side, I'm hoping that the color difference will make it easy for my bees to differentiate their own home hive. And as soon as I get a third hive set up, I plan to paint it lime green -- then take the current two hive bodies (now in use) and keep it as a swarm hive...probably as the standard white. I realize that painting my hives probably makes them stick out more, but they're protected where they sit. Plus I believe we all need a little color in this sometimes drab world. I'm really looking forward to put the new colored hives to work. Next up...names for my colonies. I'm not sure what names I'll annoint them with, but I'm giving it serious consideration right now. It will be a lot better than yellow hive, lime green hive, white hive, etc. Stay tuned.

More later. Until then, I hope you're all doing well and planning for another banner year in this wonderful world of beekeeping!

Bee good!

A moment of silence: Carrying away the dead...

For certain is death for the born
And certain is birth for the dead;
Therefore over the inevitable
Thou shouldst not grieve.
-The Bhagavad Gita

It was just in the past few days that I read an interesting post on Barbara's blog, The Bee Journal. It was 2010 resolutions for beekeepers, and the first resolution read, "I will not cry over each bee that dies. I accept the fact that it happens on occasion. However; I still reserve the right to raise them from the dead if they are willing."

I agree with Barbara 100% in her post...bees dies just like people and animals and plants. We all have to go sometime, sooner or later, although I think most of us opt for the later part. And even though I know that dying is all a part of living, its just a part of life, I'm still bothered by it in some way.

In the case of my bee colony, I'm bothered to see the dead in front of the hive..and the sight of them leaves me with questions I just can't answer. Maybe it is all first-year beekeeper jitters..but I find myself dwelling over why they're dying and then I start quizzing myself. Did I do something wrong? Could I have done something better? Should I be doing more? And at the rate they're dying, will they make it to the spring?

Today as I was checking around my hive to make sure everything was okay, this is what I found. The girls were removing the dead from the hive. As you can see, the landing board and edge of the hive stand are littered with the carcasses of bees that died inside the hive...that's because their sisters would drag them out and leave them. Within a short amount of time, other bees would come along, pick them up, and fly away with them. As always, you can click on the pictures to see them in their full size which gives better detail.

The ages of the bees varied. I found some older ones, much larger in size. Then I found some very small ones, they looked as if they were just days old. Of course, some bodies were heavier and required two bees to drag them out. In the case of the dead bee above, after the two got her outside, one of the stronger ones would pick up the carcass and fly it away from the hive. She went about six to eight feet away and dropped it on the ground. Then she returned for another body.

And yet, here's another. Here you see one bee as she drags the body of her sister out of the hive. It was amazing to watch. She climbed out of the hole, and while she was clutching the body of the dead bee, she finally got her bearings and flew away with the body. And like all the others, after she made her deposit away from the hive, she returned to start the task all over again. All while I was crouched down and watching all of this, not one bee offered to stop and see what I was doing. I suppose they were too busy with the task at hand.

Take a close look at this picture and you can see that this bee is depositing her sister's carcass on the ground not far from the hive. That is just one of many little bodies there..and there were plenty more in the immediate vicinity. As I took a good look at the dead bees, I kept my fingers crossed that none of them would have a green paint mark on her back. My queen, reared in 2009 and thus marked with a green dot, has the mark on her back. But as I examined the bees, I saw none with green markings, so I felt a little better about the situation. Not that much better really, but enough to figure that the matriarch of the hive is most likely still alive and protected by her charges.

This old leaf almost caresses the lifeless body of a dead bee who was newly removed from her hive. I watched closely as she was placed here. Her sister landed on the leaf with her cargo, deposited her, then just flew away. I tried to snap the picture quickly but I was too late to get them both. But as you can see, she's not the first dead bee to be brought here, and I don't think she'll be the last either. All I can hope for is that this is nature at work and not something out of the ordinary.

I'm most sure that my hive, with two deep supers, still has a pretty healthy population of bees inside. When I stick my ear to the side of the hive, I can hear a low, steady buzzing of activity inside. It sounds busy and alive. As many of you recall, late this past summer, there were so many bees in there that it was difficult to manipulate and manuever at times. And as I said in the beginning of this post, maybe it is just first-year beekeeper's jitters that's getting the best of me.

But seeing all those dead bees, those being brought out of the hive while I was there and those already deposited on the ground, it sort of un-nerved me just a little bit. I'm just hoping that this is what nature does to bees in the winter and its not something that I did...or something I didn't do. Truthfully, I'm perplexed. Some people say that dead bees on the ground in front of the hive is normal..then some say that you shouldn't have all that many on the ground at all. I didn't count them...but I can say I've never seen this many before.

As always, your thoughts and own experiences are more than welcome. Please share what you think is going on. I would love to hear from you!

Inspection in a word: FRENZIED!

Thursday was the perfect day for an inspection here. It was sunny, the temperature was 71 degrees, and no wind. It seemed more like spring than fall, and I figured I would do an inspection and a powdered sugar dusting in case any new varroa mites have sprung up. So I suited up, lit the smoker, and went down to the hive. Things were just fine while I dismantled the hive components; I took off the hive top feeder, then lugged the honey chamber off, and got down into the brood chamber to see what is happening there. And here is what I found.

Pardon the slightly off-center angle of the picture above, but as you can see, and like I've said before, this colony is booming. If I didn't know that fall was coming and that a lot of them will die out before winter, I would swear this hive is a candidate for swarming. Is seemed that most of them were packed in the brood nest (above) and not all that many in the honey chamber. And shortly after I snapped this picture, there were so many on the tops of the frames, I would have to smoke them to run them down into the box. Believe me, after what I started out with, I'm not complaining at all. Just my observation that a lot of bees inhabit this hive.

It had been awhile since I'd done a full-fledged inspection, and it was obvious the girls had been busy in both chambers, but they were making their fair share of burr comb too. When I pulled the honey box off, I pulled apart some of the comb that was full of honey attacked to the bottoms of the frames -- and of course the dripping honey went all across the top bars. So I had to scrape it off and into a bucket, then I had to scrape it off the bottoms of the frames in the top chamber which is packed with honey. There you see the majority of it in the bottom of the bucket (which I use for yard work). You can see the bees at the bottom that just didn't want to give it up.

Here is where it gets interesting. As I said before, I decided to do a powdered sugar dusting to catch any mites, so after I scraped off all the burr comb, I started my task with the honey chamber. I put the powdered sugar in the sifter and dusted it, and it was like someone sounded an air raid siren. They went ballistic! Ahhh, but the best is yet to come -- I had to do the brood chamber next -- and I just knew it was going to be one wild ride. And I didn't disappoint myself -- it was! Look carefully at the picture (to the left of the hive body) and you'll see a bee butting my camera. See her?

After I smoked them down into the brood chamber, I powdered them as well. And while I was doing it, the roar of the buzzing was quite loud and it looked like I was in the middle of a swarm. Some flying around were white, some their natural yellow -- and all were totally irritated. The head butting was turned up a couple of notches..and I looked down to see my overall pants all dotted with bees. They were on my gloves, on my smoker, inside my tool box -- everywhere I looked, there they were. Although I've never received a sting wound on my skin from this colony whatsoever, I found one on my glove and spinning around -- she stung my glove and her stinger was still partially inside her and lodged in my glove so I pulled her off and scraped the stinger out of the leather. They were not happy.

Although I wasn't scared (actually I was fascinated) -- I decided that this was the time to close up shop. I put the hive back together again in the midst of this cyclone of bees, and as soon as I got it together, they started hanging to the front of the hive. As you can see if you click on the picture, they're all on the front of the hive, covering the front of the screened hive stand, and a few clumps were on the ground in front of the stand. Some were returning foragers with pollen on their legs, probably wondering just what the heck was going on, but I think its safe to say that 95% were the ones that just got a dusting.

Take a look at this one. Yeah, that's a lot of ticked off bees. I know why they're so many there -- as soon as the sugar dusting began they took to the air and were now returning. They were hanging everywhere, but the ones that really bothered me were the ones that hung onto the underside of the hive stand and the ones that clumped on the ground. What scared me, and I know it probably didn't happen, but it scared me nonetheless -- was that maybe the queen was under that mass. Could she have dropped off during my inspection? Did she flee when the sugar dusting started? But then I thought it out and realized that I never examine my frames over the grass, I always hold the frames over the hive bodies in case she drops, so chances are her lying in the front of the hive and in the grass seemed really remote.

Take a look at the girls festooning under the hive stand. I watched the bees on the front of the hive slowly make their way back into the hive through the hole in the mouse guard, but then I noticed this clump under the stand. As you can see, it almost looks like a tiny swarm of bees that you might find under the eve of a house or something. While I was being dive-bombed by other bees flying around, these bees didn't do anything other than hang on to each other and wait it out. I guess they were waiting their turn to get back into the hive...in a less crowded space.


Meanwhile, three bees followed me inside my house. I was able to get one of them back outside, but the other two I had to eliminate...which bothered me a lot. One reason I eliminated it is because of my significant other, who is just fine as long as the bees are outside. And the other is because I have a 13-year-old Dachshund who is almost totally blind -- so I just couldn't take a chance of him getting stung. Oh, and that didn't include the ones that flew around the back door for awhile -- almost like, "You invaded our space, so now its your turn, buddy!" 


In the end it took a couple of hours...but the majority finally made their way back into the hive. By nightfall, only a few guard bees were on the entrance going back and forth. And then today, things seemed pretty normal, a lot of flying around in the front of the hive and crawling up the front, but otherwise it seemed fine.


Truthfully, I don't know if my experience yesterday is normal or not. Since I don't have the luxury of a mentor, I don't have anyone to readily ask...so I have to depend on asking other beekeepers online for their advice. I can say that I've never seen my bees become this aggressive before...it was even worse than the time I accidentally banged the hive during an inspection. And I realize they're protecting their honey store and usually become a little testy in the fall -- so maybe it isn't that unusual after all. So maybe my first-time experience just seemed a little more ominous than it really was.

ADDENDUM: A few other beekeepers on the BeeSource.com forum tell me that they're running into the very same situation when doing their inspections now. It seems to be that "its our honey and our home...leave us alone" mentality (right word?) that the bees have this time of year. It usually disappears in the spring. So it may not be that unusual after all.


Comments and ideas, good or bad, I'll readily accept. Anyone have a simular experience? Please share your thoughts.


I'll BEE anxious to hear from you all!

GOOD NEWS and some BAD NEWS...

THE GOOD NEWS: So the good news is...I installed my hive back to its original location today without a hitch. Even though it was mostly overcast, I decided to go ahead and get it done since the threat of thunderstorms loomed in the forecast. Like I did when I moved it a few feet ahead to install my new custom made hive stand, I decided to move it piece by piece, and while I had everything apart, do an inspection. A few puffs of smoke is all it took, and that was at the entrance. I didn't even have to use any when I took the top cover off, and surprisingly, I wasn't swarmed by inquisitive bees wanting to know who was invading the premises. I moved the top super first and off to the side, then put the lower brood box in its new location. And while I had the boxes apart, I did my inspection of the top chamber first since that's where the queen laid eggs last week (she laid none in the bottom chamber at all last week).

So after I finished inspecting both boxes, I put it all back together again, then I put a piece of corrugated cardboard in front of the entrance to act as a landing board -- that's to keep the girls from falling through the cracks of the heavy mesh screen on top of the stand. A friend of mine owns a sign shop, and he gave me about ten sheets of the corrugated board that were considered mistakes and couldn't be used. Then I put the bamboo reed back over the entrance so the girls would re-orient themselves, but honestly, I don't think it was necessary. As soon as I got the hive back together and put the hive-top feeder back on, they were flying in and out like crazy, and I noticed that quite a few were buzzing all in front of the hive. Maybe they were re-orientating themselves -- or maybe just irritated by something blocking the front door. Either way, all is back to normal as far as location is concerned and all the moving around is over for now.

THE BAD NEWS! Unfortunately, it looks like something is wrong with my queen still. This afternoon I found one frame out of twenty frames that contained with eggs. That's it, one frame of newly laid eggs -- and no more. Although she has plenty of places to lay, especially in the bottom chamber, she's laid one frame of eggs in the top chamber, on both sides of the frame, and that's it. And what's really odd, I couldn't even find the eggs from last week's inspection with Don Hopkins, the state's chief apiary inspector. Its like she lays eggs and then they just disappear. And I didn't find one larvae or capped cell in the entire hive -- none at all. I found about six drone cells but nothing else. And they're bringing in pollen, there was plenty of nectar there, and they're making honey like crazy -- but that's it.

So I called Betsy at Busy Bee Apiaries in Carrboro, North Carolina, and we put our heads together -- and we're both perplexed by it all. She told me that the colony will sometimes eat the eggs when they have no other food coming in, but with the syrup I'm feeding and the pollen they're bringing in, that shouldn't be a problem. But it looks like something is causing her to be sporatic and not doing very well, so I made the decision to replace her. I ordered a new queen and I get her Wednesday morning -- so as soon as I get back home, I'll introduce her to the hive.

The old queen? Well, I may not have to "pinch" her after all. Betsy told me that if I could find her, please bring her and some attendants to the apiary on Wednesday..and she wants to hive her and see what she's doing. I told Besty that if I can find her before I leave on Wednesday, I'll certainly do just that. But if time escapes me, it looks like she'll have to go to that great apiary in the sky, but I plan to try to find her and take her with me. I really don't want to do anything to her, to have to put her down...I'd much rather her spend out her days as an observation queen and to possibly help the experts figure out what is going on with her. Who knows...maybe she has something that could be named "Mark's Syndrome" -- and my queen will go down in the history books!

More on what happens after my Wednesday escapade to Carrboro!

Until next time friends, BEE viligent!

I installed my custom made two hive stand. Take a look!

So I mentioned earlier that I was having a custom made two hive metal stand made. And here it is. I took the dimensions to a local welding shop here in town, Amos Welding and Machine Shop, and asked Wesley Amos what he could do for me. I told him I needed something wide enough for two hives, 4-feet wide by 2-1/2 feet deep, and the legs 24 inches long. And to help with debris, mites and ventilation, I asked him to include heavy duty screen for the top. Well, in about 15-minutes, Wes had it all figured out, and I really liked his design. Instead of four legs, he decided to go with six to give extra strength in the middle. On Tuesday, when I ordered it, he said it would be the end of the week and it would be ready. On Wednesday morning at 8:45, he called and said "come and get it" and so I did. I was very impressed with the design and the craftsmanship and know that this will last for many years.
To install my new two hive stand, I would have to move the colony I have now which was sitting on a concrete pedestal I created. That would be no problem but I was concerned about confusing my girls who were returning back and found the hive moved. When Don Hopkins, the state apiary inspector was here this past week, I asked if he thought it would be a problem, and he said no. His advice was to move the hive a few feet forward and that way, when foragers return, they would find the hive missing, but still be close enough to drift to the new location once they see it. So I moved it five-feet forward of the old location, and things went extremely well. The girls were well behaved and I used about four puffs of smoke from the beginning to the end of the move. While I was digging the holes for the legs of the stand, I had a few foragers buzz around me, but I watched them do just as Don said they would do..they flew around me and then eventually found the temporary location. By dark, I only saw a few bees flying where the hive was before.
After I moved the hive to its temporary location, I decided to put something over the entrance so they would have to re-orient themselves to the short move. So I used a couple of bamboo reeds with some foliage at the top to cover the entrance. Wihin a few minutes, they were all over the bamboo, crawling up the front of the hive, and then taking very short flying manuevers and returning. The bees that returned to the original location would fly around, then fly back to the temporary spot, so I knew they were getting it. You can see the hive top feeder on the ground. I will refill it tomorrow with sugar syrup so they can get back to building comb in the top chamber.
Next to my bee colony, I think this is my pride and joy. My new two hive metal stand with a fresh coat of paint. Under it, I planted some kind of creeping Japanese ground cover (the name escapes me) to control weeds. And to make sure it doesn't sink in the ground, I put Quikrete (fast acting concrete) in the holes I dug out for the legs. At the far end, closest to my smoker, the legs stick up 14-inches out of the ground, and almost 21-inches at the end closest to the camera. And it is perfectly level, front and back and side to side. After allowing the Quikrete to cure overnight, I'll put the hive back in the original location at around lunchtime tomorrow.

So there you have it, my brand new metal bee hive stand. Since I'm thinking about next spring already, I'll have a place ready for my second colony of bees. And just think, if I grow tired of beekeeping, I can always use the metal stand as a huge barbecue grill -- large enough for a whole side of beef! Ya'll come!

When I put the colony back tomorrow, I plan to do an inspection to see if my queen is back to laying and maintaining her duties. If not, I'll order a new queen from Busy Bee this week and requeen and get things going before I leave on vacation in September. But I hope she's back to normal..and I'm sure the girls will be glad to get back to their original location -- and with a new and improved hive stand to boot!