Floor change

Old floors …

At the beginning of the season it’s a good idea to move colonies onto a fresh, clean floor, removing the old one for cleaning and sterilising. Having built a number of new Kewl floors this winter I made did the floor change a fortnight or so ago. A couple of colonies had clear evidence of a chalk brood problem which should be rectified by requeening later in the season. The new Kewl floors have a Correx landing board with a large gap separating it from the hive stand. Colonies that had previously had floors with other types of entrance, particularly where the bees had landed on the stand and walked up and in, experienced some confusion with the new raised entrance. To avoid the bees clustering under the floor I pinned a strip of DPM (damp proof membrane – used to wrap the hives up in winter to avoid woodpecker damage) across the front and so encouraged them to choose the correct route home.

Kewl floor – fixed …