Beekeeping: Stacking Up The Hive

Well, I thought it was about time to post up about my beekeeping adventures. Actually it hasn't been especially adventurous. I have mostly left the bees alone. I have peeked in there a few times to see the progress of the colony. Along with that I walk up there about every evening to watch them flying in and out. Those wonderful little critters appear to be doing just fine.

So far I have not added any chemicals to the hive. I know that some would argue that I should so I can prevent the parasites.... but I just can't help feeling like the hive can do all of that naturally. If I interfere then they can't build their own defenses. Like I said, I'm new to this and I have a lot to learn.


This past weekend I stacked up the hive. So now there are the two deep boxes on the bottom that are full of bees. I added the queen excluder and two shallow honey boxes on top. On top of those I went ahead and put the top feeder back on. In the Spring the top feeder was adding too much moisture to the hive, but in the Summer months I think it'll be a good thing.

To increase air flow through the hive I am propping up the back of the lid with the entrance reducer. This is convenient too because it gives me a place to store the reducer while I am not using it in the Summer months.

Here is a video of the process of me adding the Honey Supers.

On a side note I found it very interesting that some of the bees gather in small groups on the ground in front of the hive. I'm very curious what they are doing??