Acronyms

[thepliedes]

Hi All

One of my hives has 4 supers on with some frames waiting to be drawn.

The brood box is jam packed with bees. Everything is normal. No queen cells seen but healthy brood pattern, eggs, etc.

My mentor is unavailable and I'm unsure about what to do. They seem happy with no evidence of going to swarm - no cells but it really is full even around the entrance. Plenty of room though above the brood box. Any suggestions as to what I should do?

Should I put a nuc box beside the main hive, for the overflow and remove some brood frames but leave old queen behind in hive, and then as numbers dwindle over late summer/autumn amalgamate with the main hive again? Your advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[VEG]

what has this to do with acronyms??

 

[broandy]

can you not take some full supers of and add empty supers give them some work

 

[Davelin]

If there is room in the supers and they show no sign of swarming do you need to do anything? I don't think the nuc box idea would achieve much.

 

[thepliedes]

Nothing to do with acronyms! I don't know how that got in there! LOL

 

[Phayze]

how many brood frames full with brood in all stages egg to capped ,how many with stores pollen and nectar/honey brood box only.how many frames in supers drawn how many of these full,are the bees up in all four supers aswell as brood box,we are just coming out of quite a warm spell when the queen would've been at her highest rate of lay and these will be hatching daily

 

[Andy Duff]

go double (or triple) brood box, simples

 

[thepliedes]

Phayze - about 5 brood frames full, eggs and capped yes. Lots of honey supplies in brood box and top three supers, apart from a few frames in the third one. I will add a new super tomorrow. Temperament of the bees is good. The rate at which she is laying is what is worrying me with new bees appearing all the time. i expect by the time I get there tomorrow they might have swarmed because of lack of space in the brood box. I've never used double brood or brood and a half. I could put the only other super I have (!) on top of the brood box and make it brood and a half. What would happen in the autumn then as bees die - do I reduce to just single brood box again? Thanks.

 

[broandy]

you said no queen cells so they will not swarm

 

[thepliedes]

Would they not swarm through lack of space and just go with old queen, then the remainder could raise a new queen if a lot of brood frames filled with eggs?

 

[Heather]

Don't go with doubles if you still need a mentor- keep it simple - just add supers. They will be dwindling soon enough, so keep them as large and together as you can as Autumn approaches. They have been messed about enough this year with the weather- don't you give them grief too.

 

[broandy]

No
Where abouts in Lancs are you

 

[thepliedes]

Based in Ashton under Lyne. I don't really want to go double brood as I know I am not experienced enough and don't always want to manage a double brood anyway and don't see how I could ever get down to single brood again! Thanks Heather - this is what I've done and will continue to do I think! They seem happy enough and I don't want to do anything to force their reduction given that Autumn is round the corner.

 

[Phayze]

If you have any spare brood frames you could swap them out for the stores in the brood box,you could also put your last super on but maybe take off one super to extract then give them that super back also after extraction they will have a bit to go at but as others have said no queen cells so they shouldn't leave and as autumn aproaches they will start to dwindle back down in readiness for winter,if you do swap the stores in the brood box don't extract these as you will be able to give them back to them when they slow down for winter and the spring build up next yr