A very fast inspection for the forum

[Poly Hive]

FWIW on my behalf and frankly the forum as left on my own I would have left them alone but I DID do a very fast frame pull on a strong poly nuc and to my complete NON surprise there was NO brood at all. I didn't have on my glasses so there may have been eggs but certainly no larvae that I could see.

So there you are. Make of it what you will.

PH

 

[Queens59]

Amazing how development varies from region to region isn't it? I hadn't realised how much being in the South West would affect brood build-up etc...Always learning...

 

[RoofTops]

PH - it confirms the general belief they start later in poly hives. I haven't heard a definitive reason why this should be - do they continue breeding later the previous season so they have less pressure with winter bees dying off early in the year? Is it the better insulation masks the temperature rise outside - although I suspect it is hours of daylight and availability of forage which are stronger triggers for development at the beginning of the year. Or is it they still have more stores having consumed less.

I dunno.

 

[Poly Hive]

I have posted this a few times and so here we go again.

Bernanrd had the theory that timber hives wintered damper. To assist in drying up the atmosphere some if the damp was used by the bees to feed brood.

In poly they winter much drier and so there is no need to produce brood food.

When I had both types to get a comparison I used to see a clear 14-21 days of a difference in the commencement of brooding, with the timber ones starting first.

The poly rapidly over took when they got going and as Murray posted, although now buried in that thread, he sees a 20% better honey crop in his poly units.

PH

 

[RoofTops]

As you say, it was a theory but I'm not sure it still holds in these days of OMFs. I'm still open minded on what the cause is although as I only have poly hives these days I can't really make any comparison but certainly the busiest colonys with pollen gathering at the branch apiary today were a couple of wooden Commercials. The two poly Langstroths were busy but probably not as much as the Commercials but without opening them up I don't know what the brood situation is and the sample of hives would probably be too small for conclusions anyway.

 

[Poly Hive]

Yup timber hives were not on OMF as such when he talked about it but they were at Craibsone at the time. Remember this is where it started from.

PH

 

[Tom Bick]

I pulled a frame today on one of my hives that the last time I looked had a supersedure cell uncapped in the middle of October so obviously have been worried over this hive. The hive had been very busy with lots of pollen for a good few weeks now so I had a look in it today and the centre frame I looked at had a good large brood pattern in such a way to indicate to me that the queen (new or old?) had been laying for a few weeks, with the outer cells on the frame sealed and very young larvae inside the band of sealed brood.

 

[Poly Hive]

I would fully expect timber hives to have brood by now esp in the South.

My point is that poly starts later. However one supplier who ought to know better, or is displaying happily that they know not a lot about the product they are marketing merrily says poly starts a lot EARLIER when it is obvious to users it does NOT.



PH