James Tew in the May 1999 Bee Culture and Ron mentioned in an email to me, that spiral-shanked galvanised nails are also available and hold like glue.

Following on from last month, when you start putting a few hundred supers together you go into automatic mode, check the sides for warp, make sure the ends both face the same way before stapling or nailing. It all becomes a bit of a bore and the mind wanders a little. Its not until you stack them up or are about to hot wax dip them and you notice one or two have an end the wrong way around, the top rebate is upside down on one end. What to do. You can't take them to pieces again as they are securely nailed. These little embarrassments happen to all of us and the way around this problem is to router out a new 13-mil rebate channel and handhold. Glue in and nail, a piece of wood to the underside top-bar channel and nobody will be the wiser. (The bees won't complain).

Another thing that may be of interest is the actual colour we paint our supers. White used to be the dominant colour as this reflects heat and looks nice in a paddock. There are only a few areas in NZ that get really hot during the summer but for the majority of the country, it doesn't really matter what colour hives are painted. I prefer to paint supers in a mixture of darker colours as they help with bee orientation and warm up quicker in the winter sun. This also helps the bees to ripen the honey quicker in summer.

Bees see in the ultraviolet range, that is, they see blue, blue /green, yellow and ultraviolet. Red to them is grey, however they do see aluminum painted hives. We in our white bee suits look like bears and are sometimes treated accordingly. If the suits are washed in soap with the extra brightener, you look like a shiny bear and an easy target reflecting all that ultraviolet light.

What I have been leading up to regarding colours is the elimination of drifting; a problem often overlooked by beekeepers expanding their hive numbers. Bees coming home, for various reasons, sometimes cannot identify their hives so go into the ones on the end of the row. Hive placement has to be looked at but coloured supers can also help with orientation. Those with hives close together, all the same colour in a row must have drifting problems. The guards are alerted to the bee's different scent and are pounced upon. A bee in the wrong place won't fight but submits (has its abdomen pointing down) and offers nectar as a bribe to be allowed in. Sometime this works, other times I have observed the stranger, having disgorged all its nectar, stung and thrown off the end of the landing board. Spacing hives individually or in pair's 2 meters apart, each facing a different direction, in a horseshoe or a sign wave shape, a circle, or between bushes all help to eliminate this problem.

Drifting becomes apparent early in the season when there is a nectar flow on and the bees are flying well. Those hives with a drifting problem will have a lot of guards on the landing board with little scraps going on. Those hives with only a few guards and bees coming and go without being challenges are OK. Some may think this is only a minor problem but it does pay to correct it. Result - greater overall production as much as another half a super of honey per hive.

PUTTING FRAMES TOGETHER

When I purchased my first hive, all the frames were date stamped each time they were re-waxed (approximately every six years). My oldest frame was the same age as me. Quite amazing considering they are made from untreated timber. What I am alluding to is that if you make a good job of them, they can last for many years.

Commercial beekeepers have assembling jigs and make up to 11 - 33mm frames at a time using a staple gun. A jig is easy to make and is a real time saver. They look like a cut down super, 50 mm less in height than the frames, the same width but the sides are a little shorter (you eliminate most of the end bee space). Slots are cut into each side to allow a tapered stick to hold the end bars in position. See the drawing.

Rest the tapered sticks in position, slot in the end bars, then push in the sticks a little further in to hold the end bars securely. Put a little glue in the top slots (optional) and press on the top bars and nail using 30-mm galvanised or glue-coated round head nails. Turn the whole jig over, glue and nail the bottom bars. (You may have to release the tension on one of the tapered stick to allow the bottom bar to hold in correctly). Pull out the tapered sticks, lift the jig and the frames should fall out. Stack them ready for wiring.

I initially screwed the jig together until I got the end-bar dimensions just right i.e. the completed frames came out without a struggle. If you are like me and the sticks are not identical, make them fit and then mark the slot they go into.

If you are nailing the frames, don't use the shinny, zinc coated nails as they pull out easily. If you are making only a few frames, you can put an extra nail into the face of the end bar to give extra strength but I feel that this is not necessary.

WIRING FRAMES

Wiring frames is time consuming and you require a wiring board to do this. There are several different designs that are easily made. Andrew Matheson's "Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand" book has a picture of one. You can eliminated the cotton reel pulleys and instead of metal clips to hold the frame use blocks of wood. The important parts are the off-set lever to compress the end bar and the rubber or leather loop to stop the wire releasing and causing a bird's nest.

My one is similar but has and additional half-moon shaped piece of wood at the opposite end to the lever, which helps to bow the end bar when the pressure comes on from the lever. It is very shallow so that the wire can be easily thread while the frame is held in the jig. Thread the wire, secure the distant end with a framing nail or two staples, (tacks are too expensive). Move the lever down until it forces a small bow in the end bar. Take out any slack wire by rewinding the wire spool, put in the frame nail (or staples), wind the wire around it three or four times, drive home and breaking it off by winding it backwards and forwards a few times.

I usually just cut mine off with side-cutters but my assistant complaints all the time during extracting when the small sharp edges left goes through his thumb. The wire should be tight in the frame an twang slightly when strummed

Even if you are not making and increase, you should have additional frames ready to use either for a swarm or as replacements for dark frames in the brood nest. Don't imbed the wax on to the frames yet, as it’s a little too cold. (More on this next month).

This month's work

Prepare for the new season's work. Get out the queen raising equipment and start feeding pollen and sugar syrup to the breeder and drone producing hives (this winter has been so warm, some hives have carried drones through until now - its just got cold). Check the hives for stores by hefting the back up slightly off the stand, (one or two hives in some of my apiaries are now light) and feed where necessary. I also inspect under the lids to see that they are relatively dry and give a little more top ventilation if they are not. Clear away any weeds in front of the hives and otherwise see that the hives are in good order.