Apiary maintenance

Here is the  apiary today.  Can you see the changes?  In the hive stands?
Yes, the legs are now braced.  When I made the stands, I drilled a 3" hole in which the pipe legs snugly fit.  I thought this would give enough support, but no.  Last summer, hive #3 tilted forward.  I realized there was a little bit of play and the weight of all the honey could actually cause the hive to fall over.  I propped up the hive with a stake which you can see in the bottom left of this picture:

 Ever the optimist, I figured there would be so much honey this year that the stands would need stabilizing.  Maidi and I moved the hives onto temporary stands and I could get to work. 
I did not know how I was going to put on the braces.  Drilling through the pipes would be too difficult.  I thought some sort of clamp would work.  An online search uncovered several types of clamps that would work, but scaffolding clamps seemed best, albeit a bit expensive.  I went to (ugh) Home Depot to see what they had.  What they did not have were scaffolding clamps, but I did find 3/4"- conduit hanging clamps.  These were perfect (the legs were made of conduit pipes).

I searched my scrap wood for strips long enough to fit between the legs.  I did end up needing to buy some more wood.
I screwed the clamps onto the strips of wood and then put the clamps onto the pipes.  It worked.  I braced all four legs and discovered that there was still some play.  So I added a diagonal brace from leg to frame, one on each side.  This made the whole thing stable.  A fresh coat of paint, removal of old Tanglefoot (with a surprising  number of  bees that had become stuck) and application of fresh, and ready to go. 

Once again Maidi and I lifted the hives back onto the stands.  All set for the 50 or more pounds of honey in each hive the bees will make this summer!  (One can always hope.)
Today I checked to see how #2 was doing with its second box.   I had noticed how heavy the box was when we had moved the hives.  I looked only at a few frames at the side.  There was lots of uncapped honey and the bees were building comb in a foundationless frame, so I figured they were happy with the added space.  I put a second box on #1 & 2, as you may have noted in the topmost picture.  I also put a single Apivar strip in the added top boxes.  It seemed to make sense to do so.
I still don' know what I'm doing, but I can put on a good show.

January update

Much has been happening in the apiary in the past few weeks.
First, the mites.
A sticky board count done on 12/7-12/10 had frightening results: #1- 24; #2-22;
#3- > 50!  I have been following Randy Oliver's work on long release oxalic acid and figured that this would be a time to try it.  (I believe you all might find it interesting to look through his article.  Click on the link.)  After doing the count, I immediately went down to the local hardware store for oxalic acid and shop towels and the drugstore for the glycerin.  Randy call for grams of oxalic acid and since I do not have a gram scale, I had to convert weight to volume.  A number of beekeeper forums had threads about this.  One person figured that brown sugar looked a lot like oxalic acid crystals and used that to figure how many teaspoons to a gram.  I was not happy with that, and further searching found this, which seemed to me to be more scientific.  I cooked up my solution outside using the camp stove just in case there were lots of fumes (there were not).  Randy's work had been done in summer and he recommended laying the towels between boxes.  My hives were only one box, so I tore the towels in tow and lay them on top of the frames.  A few days later I went back and tucked the ends between the frames.  A week later I put a towel into Olea's hive between two bars.  I hope this would get the mites under control.  Two weeks after putting in the towels, I did a sticky count to see how effective they had been.  It was a four day count: #1- 104; #2-89; #3- >200, maybe 500.  So what did that mean?  Was the oxalic acid killing lots of mites or were my hives being overwhelmed?  I wrote to Randy and he said he'd be a bit concerned about counts that high after 25 days.  So I did an alcohol wash on Jan. 11: results per 100 bees- #1- 5.33; #2- 5.66; #3- 3.66.  These numbers are higher than I like.  I intend to treat this month with Apivar.
Next, the number of bees.
Each time I went into the hives, I could not help but be impressed with the number of bees.  The hives were full and there were even large numbers in the Vivaldi box.  The frames were filled with honey to the edges and there was even brood.  I asked the beekeepers guild's opinion about adding a second box, and the consensus was not to since it is winter.  This is how I felt, so I just left them in one box.  But I was still concerned about the crowding and possibly becoming honey bound.  I had been trying to figure a way to add a box with only 5 frames to give a bit more room.  That would require some sort of follower board and half bottom board so that the bees would not have access to the empty space.  then, Today, I went into #2 (more below)  and saw comb built up from the hole in the Vivaldi box attached to the lid.

Inside the telescoping lid

The hole in the Vivaldi box filled with bee-covered wax

The comb on the lid, sans bees

I thought enough is enough and retrieved a box with frames from the shed and put it on top.  Most of the frames had drawn comb.  I'll see how #2 deals with all this added space.  If they do well and #1 and 3 stay full, I will add a box to them as well.
Next, drones.
That is right, drones.  Drones in winter?!  I saw drones and drone brood in #2 when doing the alcohol wash.  Do those bees think it is spring already?  It is the available pollen that triggers spring build up and all the hives have lots of pollen coming in.  I am not sure what the drones indicate, but I did worry that there might be a laying worker.  Today I went into #2 to determine if it is queenright.  It is.  I did not see the queen, but the brood pattern is excellent, there were larvae of all ages and the drone cells were limited to the bottom and burr comb.
Finally, water source.

Matt and Laura gave us a lovely bird bath for Hanukkah.  Initially I put just rocks in for the bees to use.

They went to it right away.  They also still went to the old water source until I let it run dry and removed it.  Then I added sand and made the drinking area larger.  I also put in a bit of peat moss to see what they liked best.

Perhaps you can see the bee drinking on the moss

I think that covers it.