Bee Larvae – MMMmm – Protein!

I decided that it was time to REALLY check out my bees for the spring… I’ve only got the one hive, so I’ve been wanting to add a box or two – to allow them to increase their numbers so that I can make a split or two off of it.

I decided to checkerboard my frames as such: I currently had (1) 10-frame deep and (1) Shallow super. I suited up, grabbed my hive tool and fired up the smoker.

I pulled the shallow super off of the deep box, then pulled a deep frame, and placed it into another deep box. This allowed me to move the other frames without worrying about rolling any of the bees (especially the queen!) between frames. I wound up, with the following layout:

Med Super: 0000000000
Shallow SUPER: XXXXXXXXXX
Added Deep: X0X0X00X0X
Original Deep: X0X0X00X0X (X = existing frame with drawn comb on foundation; 0= empty frame with wooden starter strip)

The shallow super had capped brood, developing larvae, and freshly laid eggs in it. There was still 2-3 frames of honey in the shallow super. There was also what appeared to be a swarm queen cell – placed between the original shallow super and the deep hive box. Unfortunately, the swarm queen cell was destroyed when I removed the shallow super. I was curious as to the taste, etc of the bee larvae, so I ate one of the larvae that had been in the destroyed cells from my removing the super. Kind of sweet!

I really hope that I have not created TOO MUCH space in the hive. I don’t want them to abscond from my giving them too much area in which to live. I’ll wait a week or two, and let them repair their propolis and hopefully draw some new comb on the empty frames.