One of the very first aspects of bees that drew my attention was how they shaped the comb they build. After seeing my first feral bee hive in an abandoned house in the woods some 40 years ago, and the way the bees had shaped their comb, I knew I had to bee come a bee keeper. The hive was a very large one with 5 layers of comb one behind the other. The comb stretched from the bottom of the top plate to below the bottom of the window jamb, a distance of over 5 feet, and because the construction was prior to the 20th century, the distance between wall studs was over 2 feet. The comb filled the entire area. The comb was multi teared shaped and each successive layer of comb followed the shape of the one in front of it perfectly. It was spectacular, a work of art.
Well, the comb in this hive, though not quite as spectacular as the one I just mentioned, certainly got my attention. Beautifully shaped, and completely filled the space that was available. Wreck it Ralph and I worked over 2 hours just to be able to get to the hive and then another hour and a half to remove it. Other than the furious robbing that was going on, the removal/relocation went very smooth.
These bees are very settled in at the abbey and are doing GREAT. They survived our blizzard, all 8 inches of the white stuff, on the 8th of December, and when I looked at them 2 days ago, they were bringing in pollen. As usual, Wreck it Ralph did a sensational job demoing and so I asked him to do the closing of the video, and typical Ralph style, he nailed that also. Thanks for watching. God's peace. Mr. Ed
