Big colonies

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Nothing wrong with last years queen ... if you can demonstrate a reliable layer and good laying pattern then she's worth the same as a this years nuc. She will need a proper brood box in a month if not less ... nice colony for this year and a good start to next year. At least £125 - £140 down here.

Where do you transact, Philip? My BKA not any use in this sort of thing. I need to sell some nucs; I'm taking the mickey as it stands.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Is this what you mean???

Do how in the hell do you lift off full supers at that height?

 

[Pete D]

How big can can you make a colony, is there a limit? I ask because i originsally only wanted 3 colonies, i now have 5 large colonies & 4 nucs,QUOTE]

How do you define a big colony ?
Number of boxes ? frames of brood ?

It cant be just a stack of boxes with bees in them.
You could have more bees in a double brood with 18 frames of BIAS and 3 supers than a sky scraper.

I find 4 supers about the limit in terms of if I don't get it off it starts to set, especially this time of year. Also a big colony can eat a lot of honey during a wet spell !

 

[Jeff Buzz]

How do you get the top box off?? Two lids on the ground as a step

Its coming down tomorrow I did a demaree on the colony last week so I have in the boxes from the ground up.
BB Brood wall to wall
Empty brood box
3 supers full should all be ready to come off tomorrow
1 super with space for bottom bees to continue bring in honey and processing what is there.
The demaree board
with brood and half over and another empty super as they will be filling these boxes up too and I expect this to be filled by tomorrow.
Not a queen excluder in the box as per Finmans advise and I expect to take way over 100lb of honey in the first harvest off this stack tomorrow.

These are great bees very calm and I continue to give the queen room to lay to create lots of bees. As soon as the first brood box was full I added another brood box and chequer boarded the brood within a week she had layed right through both boxes and into the super.

I have not had any signs of swarming as she has always had room to lay freely unrestrained by excluders and always had plenty of room to bring in and process nectar

Hi Pete

True they can eat a lot of honey in a wet spell but they can sure bring a lot in when conditions are right

 

[jonnybeegood]

How big can can you make a colony, is there a limit? I ask because i originsally only wanted 3 colonies, i now have 5 large colonies & 4 nucs,QUOTE]

How do you define a big colony ?
Number of boxes ? frames of brood ?

It cant be just a stack of boxes with bees in them.
You could have more bees in a double brood with 18 frames of BIAS and 3 supers than a sky scraper.

I find 4 supers about the limit in terms of if I don't get it off it starts to set, especially this time of year. Also a big colony can eat a lot of honey during a wet spell !

Colony as in amount of bees, as in combining colonies, and obviously the brood they create.

 

[pargyle]

Where do you transact, Philip? My BKA not any use in this sort of thing. I need to sell some nucs; I'm taking the mickey as it stands.

Best bet was one of the Bee Auctions but most of them are in May !! So you've probably missed a good day out ... there were several around here and bees all fetched reasonable money - oddly, the Nucs seemed to fetch more for what they were than full hives.

There are always new beekeepers looking for bees have you looked at Preloved ?

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/list?keyword=honey bees for sale

They don't seem to have the no 'livestock' rule of ebay and it's a site that people use for 'local' purchases.

We also have a for sale section on here ....

They are still worth a 'silver spoon' in June !

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

BB Brood wall to wall
Empty brood box
3 supers full should all be ready to come off tomorrow
1 super with space for bottom bees to continue bring in honey and processing what is there.
The demaree board
with brood and half over and another empty super as they will be filling these boxes up too and I expect this to be filled by tomorrow.
Not a queen excluder in the box as per Finmans advise

Wow! SOme stack, Jeff. Does she tend to lay co-operatively in the lower boxes or do you end up with brood all over?

Best bet was one of the Bee Auctions but most of them are in May !! So you've probably missed a good day out ...

Brilliant! Thanks, Philip: that is a great lightening-up strategy; look to sell a few nucs now but look to overwinter a bunch into the May sales. Thanks.

 

[Jeff Buzz]

She will always tend to gradually move up but I just keep moving the brood down and give her room above or chequer board the frames. Once she has a band of honey over the brood she will not come up but may move slowly into the supers if she needs room I am happy with this as I want lots of bees in my hives. If she does lay in super frames I just drop them down or have a super of brood on top of the double brood.
I rarely use a queen excluder unless I have a specific reason to do so.

 

[BrianO]

Really Interesting Jeff.

I guess you do not inspect all brood frame by frame but instead rely on principle of being ahead of the queen constantly in providing space for new laying and also supering to keep the workers busy. Do you use drawn or undrawn frames when chequerboarding ?

I am in year 2 and God is it a steep learning curve !

I have a hive on double Brood and Pargyles commens ring so true

It's not just that ... it's when you are inspecting two or three brood boxes full of bees - you have to take boxes off and put them somewhere and you end up with bees EVERYWHERE !

Not to be underestimated.. !!!

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Hi Brian

I normally have drawn comb for chequer boarding but cannot see why foundation would not work but you need plenty of bees in the hive for a start with and a bit of a flow on, I do check every 7 days at least for swarm preparations.
Sometimes if the weather is rough I will just crack the boxes and look underneath the frames for queen cells but usually if they are getting ready to swarm you often find the cells by taking out a couple of brood frames in the middle of the nest then I do a AS
I do try to keep ahead by giving the queen room to lay and the bees room to store honey.
I have only been using a demaree for two years and it a easy way of getting rid of the brood from the nest to give the queen room but must be done before they get the swarming urge and it keeps the bees together.

Were do I put all the boxes??? I pinch the lids off other hives and use them I some times have three piles, brood, part filled super and nearly filled supers usually putting the full ones on the top of the hive.

As you say its a steep learning curve but you can learn tons of this fantastic group of people on this board. You just have to sift out what suits you and always try new ideas.