Bee Hive Week 1 check

We are allowing our bees to build out their own comb in a top bar fashion. But we decided to do this using langstroth frames. It's complicated, I know! On our monday check up we made sure the queen was free and then added more food consisting of two honey/sugar patty's and a simple syrup bag. Not much is in bloom around here and since this is a new hive with no food stores it must be provided by us, the beekeepers. Long story short, they built in the lid again! After the food patty's were eaten and the syrup bag drained there was plenty of room up there. about 2.5 inches. Since bee's are the master's of small spaces they decided to fill it. Of course we had to remove it..... because other wise they would attach the lid to the top of the frames! What a nightmare that would've been.

Our video doesn't show it because of course the battery died, but we knocked all the bees in the lid back into the hive body and took the wax off the inner cover. We also don't use smoke, but peppermint essential oil and water. This masks the alarm pheromone and the bee's then want to clean themselves rather than fight. Plus I think it disturbs the hive less, but who knows?

Anyway here we are checking them out after week one 1. I promise week two we'll have pictures and more promising growth news. It's so heartbreaking to remove so much of the bee's hard work.