In this brief apiary update, Laurence Edwards reports on the status of his wooden section racks, noting they lag behind the more advanced Ross round sections but are showing promising bee activity. He describes pulling out a damaged rack to demonstrate that bees have drawn wax and honey into all corners, confirming the effectiveness of his strategy to restrict hive space and force the colony to work the sections. Edwards also addresses a serious temperament issue, stating the current bees have become aggressive and he plans to requeen the entire apiary. He outlines the current hive setup—a double brood configuration with a 14x12 super, a national deep, and a queen excluder—to limit brood placement, and explains that while cramping can trigger swarming, it is necessary to achieve thorough section work. He estimates the wooden sections are about one to three weeks behind the Ross rounds and anticipates removing the racks for harvest once they are complete, aiming to prevent the bees from consuming the June honey flow.
Chapters
Right, quick update on the wooden section racks. Not quite as advanced as the Ross round sections and very, very difficult to get out and actually give you an update. So I've pulled one out, I've slightly damaged it, but the bees are in here, they're working them. We've cramped those conditions down, and the one that I pulled out, they have actually worked it all the way around and to the edges. So I'm very happy with that. Good apiary to do this in because it's such a strong flow going on. But again, I have to apologize for how angry the bees are here. They have just turned this year into horrible, horrible bees. So I'll be requeening in this entire apiary because I'm really not happy with this temperament. Let's take a look though at the section rack and I'll show you just how well the bees are drawing it out. So there's the one that I've pulled out. If you peek down into the gaps, maybe you can see they're just starting to work some of them. And then if you look at this one here that I pulled out and I did damage it, they're very difficult to pull out while the bees are still working them. But you can see they've worked it all the way up into all 4 corners. And then I just damaged it a little bit in that corner, but they're drawing it out really nicely. They're filling it with honey. The plan is working. We're restricting their space, making them go up and work in the section rack, giving them no choice whatsoever. And that's the only way to really get them to work it and to get them to work it really well into the corners. The colony at the moment is still on a double brood configuration. That is effectively the only super on a double brood 14x12 and a national deep. And I've just got the queen excluder in between it just to stop the queen getting up there and laying any brood up there. So they really don't have a lot of choice. You do run your luck with swarms when it comes to this. You're really triggering that swarming impulse by cramping them down, but I find it's really the only way of getting them to work these really well is by cramping them down to that level. So I'd say these ones here are probably a week behind the Ross Round sections, maybe 2 or 3 weeks until these are complete. And again, once they're complete, I'll be taking them off, moving straight on to harvest. I'm not letting the bees get into the June gap with this because they will eat it as fast as they can store it.
