October 26: Tear Down

I survived the most intense day of my short beekeeping career. I decided to do a bit of rearranging of frames from the Russian top super to the Italians. I removed 5 honey-less frames from the Italians and set them aside in an empty box. Then one at a time, I struggled to free a frame of honey from the Russians. The frames were stuck with propolis. I didn't even bother with the outside frames. They were cemented to the box. I carefully removed a frame, bumped it against the super several times so the Russian bees would drop off. You can imagine they weren't too happy. Adding to the fun, the smoker kept going out. It was a little too breezy to be undertaking this task, but as usual, I felt a bit of desperation to take care of this before it gets too cold. I replaced the removed frames from the Russian hive with the frames I had removed from the Italian hive: so a big switcheroo.

I replaced the inner cover, flat side up and propped up about 1/2 inch with shims. Between the inner cover and a queen excluder, I added some fleece cloth (an experiment) to fight the cold, and the top cover. In a week, I'll remove the cloth, as it seems kind of stupid and risky, if it were to wick in moisture.

Amazingly, I finished the project with only 5 or 6 stings to the hands (no safety gear). Time for a nap!