Hey, just wanted to post a little progress report. I'm not sure when I'll get the time to make my post about the building my tops and bottoms, as i still need to get the pictures i took off my phone. As of now, I have completed constructions, and painting, and have installed the new hardware in the bee shed, and in the process did a couple quick splits(by the box), to bring my total number of hives temporarily up to 11. Subsequently my aunt had me catch a swarm on her grapes, and so then i had 12, though neither of my splits took, and then the swarm i caught decided to fly way so i was back to down to 9 again. I decided that one of my hives was so cantankerous that i decided to euthanize them with CO2 and harvest the honey. It was quite an ordeal; I've only tried this method once before using dry ice, and it went off without a hitch, but unfortunately i'm still having a fair amount of trouble with cross comb(trying to go foundationless) and so it was hard to shake the bees into the soapy water this time. I took pictures but I'm not sure when I'll get the time to organize them a write a post. My solar wax melter has been busted for a couple or years, and I'm trying figure out the best method now to build a new box and place the glass... ...and I'm trying to improve my woodshop in the process...
I did get ~6 gallons of honey though! And all from the one hive - i think that seems pretty good. I'm working on filtering some of it now(it was kinda dark).
...and then then there's still the couple dead hives i have to melt down now...
I'll keep you posted.
