Don Semple made me this gorgeous reproduction of Huber's leaf hive. I put bees in it this spring and they thrived in it. Only one comb was off a bit and I rubber banded it back into place. The rest were exactly in the frames with no actual guides. I just propped some combs in the way Huber did and the rest they built. Unfortunately we got hit with pesticides and it went from booming to collapsed (along with ten other hives) sometime between Sunday when they were doing really well and Friday when they were dead. But here it is in happier times. The first volume of Huber's book: http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm
More pictures of the Huber hive: http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm#LeafHivePictures
I saw this frenzy going on and turned the cover over to block the entrance. They were doing this same thing before I blocked it. They would pile up until they would fall in clumps. I slowed it down to try to see it better.
I consider propolizing a good trait for bees (maybe not for the beekeeper). Here is a mating nuc I found this year. The drilled hole is about 5/8". The reduced hole is about 5/16".
It wasn't working right and then it would and then it wouldn't. This is what I found. It couldn't get out, so I left it and used another smoker. It was finally out after two days.
We needed to feed because of a dearth and we still needed to finish building up the 8 frame nucs for winter. We bought 50 six gallon buckets and bought 3,450 pounds of sugar in 25 lb bags. We worked out the maximum strength we could do with hot water from my tap (140 F) and not have it crystallize out. We put one 25 pound bag in each bucket with a heaping tablespoon of ascorbic acid, then 18 pints of water and stir it with a five gallon paint stirrer. After 10 to 30 minutes we stir it again.
