Catching Up

Still learning how to manage a blog. Looks like it should be updated every day or two to make a habit of it.  We'll see.
It's been over 2 weeks since the last update (wax entry doesn't count). We spent a week in California, LA area, at the wedding of Lauren and Brian in the San Bernadino mountains. Weather was cool and dry, even near the Pacific at Santa Barbara and Laguna Beach. We came back to the same weather which is continuing, except for last Sunday which got to 94. Of course that's the day I played golf.
Anyway, the bees easily survived the trip with no feeding. The porch hive was packed with bees. Many had squeezed under the end bar because the weight of the others on the screen created a small gap. The feeder was also full of bees. Quite a few were escaping onto the porch and we spent some time trying to find the escape route. Turns out it was because they got past the end bar - that space just had pieces of cardboard covering it and there was a gap. Also, the lid wasn't meant to be really tight. Every time I opened the screen to let the escapees out, more showed up. Not good.
I tried cutting some wood to cover the space, but it was warped, so they still got out. Then I decided they just needed more space so I had to add bars. This meant moving the end bar and flipping the 3 extra bars I had into the main space.
For this, I got fully suited and shut the door to the house, of course. As soon as I pried the bar loose, they came flying and crawling out - very exciting. I managed to get the new bars in, but there were so many bees everywhere that there were a number of casualties. It's not always possible to tinker with the hive without killing some bees. There are always some wandering where you don't want them.
So the hive was re-established with more room. The porch emptied, with a little help from me. Note that if you wait until it's dark and cool, the bees just sit around in a group. I could brush them into a pan and dump them outside.
I also got some more wood and cut a lot of new bars. I replaced the warped wood with those so the there are no escape routes. After a few days, the bees in the space outside the end bar moved back in, as did many of the bees in the feeder. They have been busy ever since building more comb. The observation window makes it easy to see them as they string across an expanse attached leg to leg - weird, but it's one of the things they do.
I finally went in to remove the empty feeder this morning, mostly because dead bees were accumulating. The bees still appear to be confused by this space. It's outside the hive so they think it's an exit so they try to take the trash out that way. Eventually, they drop the dead bees out there.  When I opened it, they just flew right out the window, some carrying the trash. I removed the feeder, which was stuck with sugar water, so I had to jostle it. I also removed the corpses.  I'll watch now to see if they run out of space again. I'm reluctant to add more bars because the existing comb seems to have plenty of open cells. The bees seem to love building comb, maybe more than storing honey.
This is getting long, so I'll make a separate post for the outside hive.