New to bee keeping

[roundhillmark]

Just learning about bee's, got my first hive, no bee's yet. I guess I started to late for this year, will get bee's next year. I read that sometime is helps (jump starts your hive) if you add one of your boxes to an existing hive to pre-build it. What are people thoughts on this? If it is a good idea, does anyone have a hive I could drop one of my boxes on? Sorry for the newbie question.

[Bret Fisher]

On 7/10/2020 at 11:23 AM, roundhillmark said:

I read that sometime is helps (jump starts your hive) if you add one of your boxes to an existing hive to pre-build it.

No need to apologize for the newbee question - we've all had them and you're going to have a lot more.

Please point out where you found this information, as it does not sound like anything I've heard or read before. Simply "adding a box" to an existing hive without frames of foundation will do nothing except create way too much open space for the bees. It may be that what you read was suggesting that having drawn comb for your new bees to start out with is a good thing - and it is - provided the comb comes from a disease-free source colony of bees. No beekeeper in his/her right mind is going to let their bees do all the work of drawing comb just to give away what is often described (and rightfully so) as the beekeeper's most valuable resource. 

It may also be that what you read was suggesting that you "age" your woodenware so that you're not putting your new bees into a fresh-smelling pine box. You can accomplish that simply by leaving your assembled and painted hive bodies outside, elevated off the ground, so they can be exposed to the weather a bit and lose that fresh lumber smell.

I collect propolis from my hives as I work them or when I'm cleaning up old hive boxes. Then I mix it with rubbing alcohol to make a tincture of propolis that I apply with a paintbrush to the inside of new hive bodies as I assemble them so that by the time I use them on a hive they already smell like a beehive. 

Please keep an eye on the LBA website for information about registration for the next beekeeping courses:

https://www.loudounbee.org/the-association/beekeeping-classes.html/

In the meantime, please read "Beekeeping Basics" at the link below:

http://denton.agrilife.org/files/2013/08/beekeeping-basics.pdf

Welcome to the fascinating and often frustrating hobby of beekeeping!