And thoughts on hives

The hives are all quiet today. I got everyone installed in proper wood hives just in time – yesterday it rained and snowed all day, and we’re in the middle of a string of overnight lows in the low 30s. On the heels of a high of 90 the day before. I think now that it might have been good to get feeder shims and baggie feeders into the tops of at least the swarm hives before the cold, but I didn’t and I’m not going to go crack open all the hives and chill everybody for that. It should be in the 50s tomorrow, I may pop some syrup in them then.

I’m considering building a test hive based on the designs of the LAAZY hive, except using all new lumber instead of repurposing Langstroth boxes. I think the Slovenian AZ hive format seems like it has a lot of potential benefits, but the non-Langstroth frames makes it more expensive and less convenient. The fact that a tested Langstroth-compatible AZ variant already exists saves me some planning work. I’m thinking about building one or two hives to test, and if they work well after next season, then I can build more and construct a larger (but still small) half-shed building for them. I think it’s too late this year to realistically get them built and get a good handle on how they perform, but if I get them constructed over the summer, I can have them ready to go for next year’s spring splits/swarms. That should make for some good ongoing content as well, to help encourage me to keep posting. Now I need to start sharing the link to my blog so I get visitors and can stop talking to myself.