This week we removed bottom boxes and sugar shims from the colonies.
There was never a reason cited for leaving on sugar shims. They all came off, and depending on their condition, were filed for reuse or dumped into a bucket with a lid.
And there was talk that we should have removed the bottom boxes a couple of weeks ago. Then it would have been early enough in the year to not have brood growing in the bottom box. Doing it now, we have to check the middle frame or two to see if there's any brood and if so leave that bottom box on. This makes the operation take longer.
On one 8 frame that we dismantled to remove the bottom board, we noticed that lots of debris had fallen through the screened bottom onto a board that was still part of the bottom. We could find no way to access this area to clean it out without unscrewing the bottom board. Note for future: don't do this.
Jerry says that Dr. Brenda says look at the first 10 bees coming into a hive and it will tell you something about what's going on inside. What I noticed were bees loaded with yellow pollen.
Oh yeah we also taped up some of the bare insulation on the solar wax melter, found a pan for the drippings (that was missing), and put it in the sun.