honey
New Bee
hi all,
well i've had my cast of what was about 5000 bees in a brood box in national hive for about a month now and they seem to be doing really well - just been noticing when re-filling their feed recently, there seems to be double the amount of bees in the feeder & at the hive entrance since i first got them. they have also been very good calm bees so far.
anyway, i've been advised to add a 2nd brood box & try and build the colony up as much as poss. before the winter. i've been told to put the current brood box on TOP of a fresh new brood box on the bottom of the hive, and then top the two of them with a super.
my only concern is that it might be a bit too much space to fill for a small colony, or do you think they'll have chance to build up between now & winter? i know it's not good to have too much empty space to heat over winter...
also, once i put the new brood box underneath the current one, will the bees tend to go downwards and fill the new one, as well as going up to the super - because i thought they work upwards? or did i get that wrong?
well i've had my cast of what was about 5000 bees in a brood box in national hive for about a month now and they seem to be doing really well - just been noticing when re-filling their feed recently, there seems to be double the amount of bees in the feeder & at the hive entrance since i first got them. they have also been very good calm bees so far.
anyway, i've been advised to add a 2nd brood box & try and build the colony up as much as poss. before the winter. i've been told to put the current brood box on TOP of a fresh new brood box on the bottom of the hive, and then top the two of them with a super.
my only concern is that it might be a bit too much space to fill for a small colony, or do you think they'll have chance to build up between now & winter? i know it's not good to have too much empty space to heat over winter...
also, once i put the new brood box underneath the current one, will the bees tend to go downwards and fill the new one, as well as going up to the super - because i thought they work upwards? or did i get that wrong?