Here is an update on the Honey Super Cell experiment. It failed. Apparently the queen couldn’t survive after her flight outside the hive. Regardless of why, she died and the colony also died out. The other colony is still fine.
Next news is that I ordered a 4.9 mm small cell size foundation roller mill to make home-made wax foundation from an Amish machinist in Arkansas. It should be finished in about a month or so.
Finally, I also just ordered a pallet (130 boxes) of deep hive bodies from Shastina Millwork in Oregon to be delivered to my youngest son, Gerrit, in College Station the first week in January, 2014. He’s going to start beekeeping this coming year and I am going to coach him from Japan. He’s going to have to make the tops and bottoms himself. Haven’t decided yet about whether to buy the frames or make them. Bought a beekeeper jacket/hat/veil combination from Dadant a few weeks ago. Starting to get the ducks lined up, so-to-speak. We may need to change the name of this blog to Westover and Sons, Apiaries in the future.