Rough and Ready

Can I pass this off as photo-documentary? This is a single 'brood frame'. Ten or eleven of these, hanging from the ledges on opposite sides of a topless, bottomless wooden box make up a 'brood box', in which our bees rear their young

I have spent some of today sorting through these leftovers from last year, discovering which ones are ready to install in a hive and which ones need further work. The frame is precisely proportioned - 431mm wide at the top and 216mm deep - to leave a pre-determind gap between the frame and the sides of the box, or the other hive components above and below.

This gap is the 'bee space'; if it is in the goldilocks zone - not too wide and not too narrow - the bees will treat it as a thoroughfare, rather than a chasm to be bridged by wax or a crevice to be filled by propolis. If either of these things happen, the frame is welded to the hive wall and cannot be easily removed or moved, resulting in damage or upset. The whole point of a modern hive is that it is a 'moveable frame' design - as first perfected by Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth in the 19th century US, enabling modern bee management techniques. A hive with the frames attached to the hive by the bees becomes a physical oxymoron!

New frames are usually bought as a kit and assembled at home: six pieces of wood (the bottom and top are both two bars) and nine nails. Most beekeepers then insert 'foundation' - a thin wafer of wax, imprinted with a honeycomb pattern, that fills the entire frame. We usually use just a small strip of foundation, as shown here. The result is less predictable, and potentially a bit uneven, but I like letting the bees use their imagination. Most beekeepers also use foundation embedded with wire to help support the wax during inspections. I detest wire, so use two bamboo barbecue skewers instead - also potentially more uneven, but far more pleasant to work with

This frame is steam-cleaned and recycled, which is why you can see some propolis residue on it. Recycling does not save much money, but it feels less wasteful. The bees are just as happy either way

I think this is like checking passport, tickets and currency for the fifth time before a journey. Can you tell I'm anxious for the season to start in earnest?!