Omlet Beehaus - Clearer Boards; Using Dummy Boards; Inspecting Health; Closing up

www.omlet.co.uk Page 31
Put the inspection tray under
the Beehaus.
The tray will have a mixture of
wax cappings, pollen and possibly
varroa mites.
On the next inspection pull it out.
If you find varroa mites then you
may need to treat the colony.
Using dummy boards
Wheneveryoudon’thaveafullsetofframesintheBeehaus,youshould
put a dummy board after the last frame. The dummy board will make
surethecombonthelastframeisdrawnoutregularly.Whenyouinspect
the bees you can remove the dummy board to give you more room
to work.
Inspecting health
As well as looking at the brood on the frames, you can use the inspection
tray to find out if there are any health issues in the colony. Place the
inspection tray underneath the mesh floor and 2-3 days later inspect it
to see what has fallen through. Please refer to the bee health section on
Page 46 for more on this.
Don’t leave a gap here... ...or here because the bees will fill
it with wild comb.
Dummy board. Placing a dummy board in
the Beehaus.
Closing up
Once you have satisfied yourself that your bees are in good shape it’s time
to close up the hive and leave the bees to their important work. An easily
made mistake is to leave a gap either in between frames or at the back
of the brood.
Supers can be placed on top of each
other.
The bungee cord can be adjusted to fit
the extra height.
Clearer boards
The Beehaus comes with 2 clearer boards which make removing a full
supermucheasier.Whenoneormoresupersarefullandthebeeshave
enough stores to be able to take some honey, simply put a clearer board
under the supers and leave it for 24-48hrs.  When you come back the
supers will be clear of bees. You can use a clearer board under 2 supers at
the same time.
Remove the queen excluders and
put a clearer board in place.
Put the cover board on top, 24-48hrs
later you can collect the super.
Put the full super on top of the
clearer board.
Push all frames together
Make sure all the frames are pushed together and that the frames are
resting against the divider board at the back and there is a dummy board
at the front. If you don’t, the bees will build wild comb in the space and
this will make it difficult to inspect them. If you do find wild comb built
in a space in the beehaus, then it is best to remove it.