Last evening, after the majority of bees returned from foraging, my dad and I sealed the hive for its move to Johnstown. We ensured there were no gaps in the top-bars that would allow unwanted back-seat drivers. The holes were corked and the hive was carried to the van. I loaded up all my things and took the 15 min. drive to their new home.
Even though I found the queen yesterday, my concern was that she had not adequately mated. We will soon see if my fear is warranted. With the hive being so close to Lynd's farm and in an area where there are bound to be wild swarms, she should be able to adequately complete any maturing well.
Since all the Johnstown set up was in the darkness, this morning I was able to utilize the sunlight. I moved the top bars from the swarm box to the supers of a Langstroth body. The top-bars were about an inch too long to allow the hive's closure. We chose to trim them back with a Japanese pull saw. A second hive body was placed above the top bars with the materials Doug purchased. It will be sometime until the drawn top-bars can be removed from the hive (next year).
With the morning sunlight I was also able to see FRESH EGGS! I will return to this hive in a week to help Doug monitor the progress. We should see a lot of new comb as they have a hive-top feeder with 1:1 simple syrup.
Stay tuned!
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