March 20: Beehive Scrubbing

We are getting honeybees again (for the third time) to see if we can finally keep a hive over the winter. I am doing a ton of research and trying to get everything in order for our two new packages of bees that arrive next Saturday. A package of bees contains about 10,000 bees with 1 queen and we will be dumping each of them into their hive once we pick them up. But our existing hives were super gross from our bees dying and all kinds of creatures moving in afterwards (wax moths, beetles, wasps, stink bugs, bumblebees, etc). It was like it's own little eco system without the honeybees there to protect it. 

We used a type of hive in our backyard called the Langstroth Hive. It consists of multiple layers of boxes stacked vertically. There's a bottom board and a top cover, and in between there are 2 or 3 brood boxes, where the bees live, construct their comb, lay eggs, make honey, etc. All the honey they produce in those boxes are for them to eat, especially during the winter months when there is not food out in the wild. My goal for the bees has always been to get those boxes full so they have enough supplies for our long, cold winters. If and when those boxes become full, then you can add smaller boxes called "supers" for the bees to make additional honey that we can harvest. We didn't even get a chance to use our supers last year, but the brood boxes had once been at least partially full and now were gross. 

Thankfully, the weather was delightfully gorgeous so I spent the day outside disassembling and scrubbing the old hives to get them ready for our new bees. I sprayed a solution of 5 parts water to 1 part bleach all over the boxes to kill any bacteria, etc that might be harmful to the bees. I then used our hive tool and wire brush to scrape off all the ickiness, rinsed it all off, and let the boxes sit in the sun to dry. It was hard work, but they look amazing now, and I feel much more confident about our new bees living there happily. I am thankful that almost all of the parts from the old hives can be reused (at first I thought that maybe we would have to purchase all new supplies, but I think all we need are new bottom boards and some new frames to put inside the boxes). It was delightful to be out in the sun, doing manual labor with a tangible result, and I am now even more excited about our little honeybees. 

With delight,

♥Jamie