Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Not sure what to do

Over the weekend I managed to get 10 of the new frames that I bought built and filled with foundatiion. I put them in a super and proceeded to get them on one of the hives. I opened up the hive that was started from a nuc last year - this is the one that seems to be doing the best. I noticed that there were ALOT of ants crawling up the hive and when I toook off the outer cover I discovered a good size ant nest on the underneath side of the cover. YUK. Now there is a certain amount of irony in the fact that I am nurturing on group of insects and find the others repulsive. I brushed all of the ants off of the cover.

I gave the hive a little smoke and went on in. I am so scared of accidentally hurting the queen it makes me very hesitant to fool with them too much. I pulled out several frames and there is what appears to be capped brood. There doesn't seem to be much honey. The dilemma is whether I should be feeding them or not. There is alot blooming and alot of activity so that may be what they need, but if they need the extra boost of food I want to give it to them. I think I need to contact someone for good advice.

I opened the second hive - looks like the same situation except there are a couple of frames that haven't even been pulled. I put the super on the first hive and covered them back up. I think I should be taking the whole thing apart and look down into the bottom hive bodies, but there is the issue of not being able to identify the queen and being afraid of hurting her. I think this is more than I should do by all myself. Yikes!

Well....I think I need some help!