14x12

[nubee 61]

This is my first spring of bee keeping as i didnt get my colony of bees until late may of last year. After my first inspection of the year about 4 weeks ago i found my brood box bursting with bees with sealed brood on at least 6 frames,so i decided to change over to a 14x12 brood box to give them a bit more space and hopefully stop them from swarming.The new brood box has been on about a week now and as it was quite a nice day today i had a quick look to see how they were doing in drawing out the combs.
what i found was that they had partly drawn out about 5or6 frames but all the cells were being used to store honey,basically they were using it like a super so no space for the queen to lay if she wanted.
the set up at the moment is old standard BB then new 14x12 BB crown board feeding eek with ambrosia syrup(thought would help with wax making but they havn,t touched it)then the roof.
should i have put the new BB right on the bottom?

 

[MuswellMetro]

This is my first spring of bee keeping as i didnt get my colony of bees until late may of last year. After my first inspection of the year about 4 weeks ago i found my brood box bursting with bees with sealed brood on at least 6 frames,so i decided to change over to a 14x12 brood box to give them a bit more space and hopefully stop them from swarming.The new brood box has been on about a week now and as it was quite a nice day today i had a quick look to see how they were doing in drawing out the combs.
what i found was that they had partly drawn out about 5or6 frames but all the cells were being used to store honey,basically they were using it like a super so no space for the queen to lay if she wanted.
the set up at the moment is old standard BB then new 14x12 BB crown board feeding eek with ambrosia syrup(thought would help with wax making but they havn,t touched it)then the roof.
should i have put the new BB right on the bottom?

no you have it right,

suggest you go through the bottom box and find the queen, transfer her upstairs into the new 14x12 ( on a standard frame of brood...change it later) and place a queen excluder over the old standard brood box to trap HM up stairs

i also put a middle entrance above the QEx and close the lower entrance( if i can be bothered)

 

[REDWOOD]

Bruise the honey and put a super on top with a queen excluder between them as the bees are using the 14 x 12 as a super

 

[itma]

To draw comb in the upper brood box, it has to be warm.
The weather isn't good for that right now.
And putting a super on top is just going to make both brood boxes colder! Not likely to be helpful, I fear.

I'd suggest patience.
But as soon as the weather warms up, then help them along by moving some/most/all brood & HMQ 'upstairs'.
As I was reminded last week, the brood region is going to be kept warm by the bees, and since wax-making needs warmth, it therefore follows that the frame right next to the brood is going to be the easiest place for the bees to draw out foundation ...

Standard (non-14x12) frames in the jumbo box aren't automatically a disaster.
They'll probably get you some easily-culled drone brood, for varroa control, before you can work them towards the outside and eventual replacement with full-depth frames.



ADDED - mark the short frames on the topbar, so you can tell which is which! (If they are the same width.)
And with (as you report) 5/6 frames of brood and 5/6 part-drawn jumbo frames, the top box is going to be well on its way! Especially if you put the brood in the middle...

 

[oliver90owner]

Go with MM's post. Sensible and practicable. Uncapped honey is difficult to 'bruise' and would be transferred to the eventual super, if not required for brood feeding. In three weeks time the bottom box will be removed and, by then, there will likely be a super on, anyway.

 

[enrico]

I'd suggest patience.
But as soon as the weather warms up, then help them along by moving some/most/all brood & HMQ 'upstairs'.
As I was reminded last week, the brood region is going to be kept warm by the bees, and since wax-making needs warmth, it therefore follows that the frame right next to the brood is going to be the easiest place for the bees to draw

E

 

[nubee 61]

thanks

thanks every body for the advice

 

[Arfermo]

the set up at the moment is old standard BB then new 14x12 BB crown board feeding eek with ambrosia syrup(thought would help with wax making but they havn,t touched itQUOTE]

No wonder - they don't need feeding this time of year.

 

[oliver90owner]

No wonder - they don't need feeding this time of year.

Not exactly great advice. Feeding requirements will vary and what is perfectly satisfacory with some may not be appropriate for others. In this particular circumstance the fact given (honey being stored in the new box) would indicate the need for feeding, in this particular instance, was indeed unnecessary.