Questions for Tina Sebestyen
Dear Tina Sebestyen,
I started reading an article in the ABJ July issue, and got to the end of the first page and thought: This sounds like Tina! Sure enough, there was your byline! I learned so much!
But I have two questions, and a lament.
First, I’ve heard that you shouldn’t blow on bees because they are upset by CO2 … ?
Second, I end up mentoring a lot of absolute newbies who start with a 5-frame nuc and five absolutely bare frames. How do you position those 10 frames with each other in the box? Then, once those fill out and they need to add a second box, all full of absolutely bare frames, how do you checkerboard the frames for best comb-building results?
And my lament — that was your last article? Can you hear me wailing all the way from NY?
I hope you keep writing articles, even if you aren’t doing that particular column.
Thanks for EVERYTHING!
Rhonda Morton
New York
Tina responds:
Rhonda,
Never fear, I’m kind of hooked on writing for the ABJ :0)
I also have heard that bees don’t like CO2, but have yet to see a bad reaction to being blown on unless I haven’t brushed my teeth.
Comb management is a great reason for a new-bee to get in their colonies at least bi-weekly. When I install a nuc into the 10-frame box, I usually put the food frame next to the wall, and a bare one next to it. Then I line up the brood combs and the one to work into, then the rest of the bare foundations. The bees will usually get one more brood frame going before starting on a honey frame, which leaves them honey-bound. As soon as they start on a honey frame next to the brood, I insert one or two bare ones between the brood and honey, and keep going that way until the honey frame hits the wall. I usually don’t move anything up to the next box, as it is really unnecessary. The bees want to go up, and anything that I moved up would leave a bare foundation in the lower box, where they will be more reluctant to draw it out. If, for some reason, they refused to move up, I would move a brood frame up to the center position, and scoot everything in the lower box over to make the empty space be one out from the wall, where it won’t be in the way of progress, but will get drawn (as it wouldn’t if it were against the wall).
Tina Sebestyen
