Top Bar Beekeeping in Arlington Heights

Total is 13 bars up to the honey bar from last year.  They seem to have eaten a decent amount of the honey bar. It is hard to say but comparatively these bees seem a lot more active than the last ones. I do like the screened bottom a lot.  Crap falls through, along with a lot of pollen, which must fall off their legs accidentally?

From the three partial I gave to them, they have 9 basically full and a 10th about 1/2 way.  They are moving.  I will need to get in there this weekend and add more space!

The first new bees should be, or already have been hatching soon.  Again more rain and cold today, but a string of 80s coming up. I made a home made OAV vaporizer with a soldering iron and tin foil.  Works fine.  Want to make sure I stay ahead of mites.

Finally able to get in the (high 50s and sunny).  Celia helped!  Of the three combs from last year, they repaired all the holes.  The have about 4 more full combs built, and one partial.  I added 3 more empty bars. Supposed to be 70 tomorrow.

Cleaned up pollen patty, they did not touch and a lot of dead ones stuck to it.  Removed feeder, they did not touch.  Removed some dead bees.  Queen definitely was released, removed cage. Got some school pencil containers to hold the diatomaceous earth under the screen.  I already like the screen, all the crap stuff that builds up in the bottom now falls through! Just watched them for a while.  They seem more prolific in building than the original NUC bars from Max 3 years ago. Added insulation above screen in uninhabited area to keep down unintended airflow.

Finally a bit warmer (53) and sun.  They were out a lot, but still did not want to risk opening.  Tomorrow supposed to be near 70, so I will smoke and open.