/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>482276

That's when 3 landed on my face! I started walking away as calmly as possible with my eyes and mouth firmly shut. Even so, one still decided to sting me right on the tip of my nose. I got to a safe distance and managed to remove the stinger and wash my face with water from a nearby fountain. It made my eyes water and nose run, and throbbed a little, but only for a short time.

The arrangement was for me to bring him my brood chamber, leave it there over night, and he'll remove my 10 empty frames, replacing them with 10 frames from his hive, which already had foundation and were already half covered in comb. He charged 45 euros because they had already started producing comb and he had already put foundation on the frames. Usually he charges 25 for a fresh swarm, but he didn't have any available at the time. And then I would return the following night, after all the workers had returned to the hive, to transport them back to my apiary.

I've had them now since Monday. To my surprise they have completely emptied the top feeder every single day since their arrival. I am worried that having a source of food provided for them may deter them from working as hard, so today will be the last time I top it up (and I placed a bowl filled with gravel and water near the hive too). I have only done one proper hive inspection so far. I removed most of the frames for a quick look over. I didn't manage to find the queen, and to be honest I have no idea what I am looking at when it comes to the comb. There are plenty of capped cells, but I don't know if those are honey stores or brood. And I am still trying to get the smoker to stay working for more than a minute (just been using dry brown grass/hay, but I heard pine needles smoulder well - so I'll be gathering some up soon).