SoCal Beekeeping

Bee Quilts in the Summer
6/14/2018
P. Michael Henderson

As summer approached, I had taken the wood shavings out of the bee quilts but left the bee quilts on the hives.  I was on vacation for about a month and when I looked into the hives on my return, the bees had not done anything in the supers that were directly under the bee quilts.  Maybe the vent hole allowed too much light into the top of the hive.

So I removed the bee quilts.  Now, I'll have to wait to see if the bees move up into those supers.

In my old hive, I had put a couple of plastic foundation frames in the middle of the two brood boxes.  I notice that the bees are concentrating to the side of the brood box.  I don't know if they don't like the plastic or if they'll draw out comb on it if I leave them long enough.  They had decreased in number - probably swarmed when I wasn't looking - and they're building up now, so they're going to need to expand their brood area.  I'll leave the plastic foundation a bit longer and see what they do.

I put plastic foundation in one of my other hives and the bees accepted it quickly.

I'll add some pictures soon.