• 2 cups flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (maybe more)
• 1/3 cup lukewarm water

Combine eggs, salt, water then add flour.  Kneed until dough is firm and well mixed.  Cover with bowl or plastic for an hour.

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface.  Our first batch made a circle about 24 inches across.  The thickness matters in the final product.  Think about the thickness of lasagna noodles as a rough guide.

Boil

• 4 or 5 potates
• with a little salt

drain and add

• cheese
• white pepper

mash up potatoes and cheese and pepper.  Have a taste to make sure this is right.  Last year we used cheddar and mozzarella.  This year we used a sharper cheddar and jack.  Both are good.  Choose the cheese for the taste.

As the potatoes cool, cut out the pierogi dough.  I used a 3.5 inch glass this year with good results.

In each pierogi round, place a spot of the potato filling, moisten the edge, fold and seal.  Try not to squeeze out filling, but avoid leaving air inside.

Boil the pierogi for 4-5 minutes and let dry on a cooling rack.

Pierogi can be bagged and stored in the fridge or freezer.  They can be eaten immediately or even cold.  I prefer to fry them in butter before serving.  This can be done immediately after the boil or days later out of the fridge.

Note on ingredients:

My flour is organic hard white wheat which I grind, so it’s whole wheat.

I took it out, cut out the brood cells and returned it to the top of the hive leaning up against a brick.

The inspection lasted almost 30 minutes. Here’s the 4X:

The bees appear to be building at a slight angle. The comb at the left is set back while the comb at the right is forward of the bar. Several combs are build across two bars. One of the full combs (built out with honey and good brood) dropped down off the bar. It stayed vertical, so I left it in place and made spaces on either side for the bees to fill in.

The SHB were there as before. I dispatched about 30 of them from the back end. They may be hiding in the corners along the bottom board. I think about how to get the SHB frequently now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_hive_beetle

http://beehivejournal.blogspot.com/2009/02/cd-case-small-hive-beetle-trap.html

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2009/03/splits-and-new-small-hive-beetle-trap.html

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?228063-Small-Hive-Beetle-Nematodes

http://www.beehacker.com/wp/?p=131

http://www.wasba.org/SHB.pdf

http://www.beeworks.com/informationcentre/small_hive_beetle.html

http://southeasterninsectaries.com/custom3_1.html

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov07/beetle1107.htm

http://www.freshfromflorida.com/pi/enpp/ento/aethinanew.html

Here’s the super from the outside:

Note that the super hangs off the sides of the top bars.  The next bars that I cut will be an inch longer so that standard Langstroth equipment will work with it.  I’m not sure the details, but it would be useful if I could both rest equipment on the top bar as in this picture and hang the top bar in place of a frame.  I think an adapter is in order.

The brood comb I set in the back of the hive followed by a view of the inside of the hive:

This technique seems to be pretty successful in that the bees will clean up the comb and I don’t find new brood back there. They do put in some nectar and fix the comb to the box. They also built some new comb nearby on a top bar and there, I found some SHB back there:

They don’t appear to be strong throughout the hive which is good, after last year, I’m still nervous…

Today I took the two funny shaped combs and moved them to the back of the hive with some space around them.  My hope is that the brood will hatch and the bees will clean out this comb and replace it with straighter comb.

I’ve noticed that the comb curves off the guide at one end of the bar.  You can see a corner of unsupported comb falling off in the video.  I put it on top of the hive then brought it in and put it on a plate.  John said it tasted very nice.  What I’m wondering is whether I made my triangle guides too short.

I also noticed that the bees are resisting the guides and building farther out.  Maybe they’ve finished with brood and want to move to honey spacing?  I’ve also noticed that they started two combs on the bar at the back (the first one you see in the video).  Maybe I need to paint the triangles with wax.  It seemed to work for the center bars.

I still need to number the bars for reference.  I saw three large hive beetles.  I got one of them with the hive tool.  Maybe I need a real roof?

In the air:

At the entrance:

I still need to number the combs for better tracking.  I removed the cleaned out comb that I had dropped some time ago.  There were a few hive beetles hiding underneath it.  They are now deceased and the hive appears to be quite free of SHB.

A review of the video shows 10 bars of comb.

Here’s a shot from the back of the hive.

I took a bit of video and you’ll see that there’s good brood and that the bees are attaching the comb on the right side (looking from the back).  You’ll also notice that some of the front combs are stuck together.  I didn’t pull the front comb out as I didn’t want to drop it.  It’s time to number frames for better note keeping.

Here’s a shot of the stuck combs from the top.

Here’s a look at the comb from the front of the hive.

Why the sudden interest in the calendar?  Today is a very happy day for the nervous beekeeper.  Art was right.  There’s sealed brood, larvae curled up, capped honey, nectar, pollen… and somewhere there’s a queen!  This image is linked to the original on which you may see much more detail.

Here’s a view from the back of the undisturbed hive:

Here’s a look at the combs:

Magnificent!

Remember those combs that I knocked off last time?

Here they are:

The bees have attached them to the side of the hive, but have pretty well drained the comb.  Maybe this is a good way to get wax?