Brace comb with brood on crown board - what to do?

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Ivor Kemp

House Bee
Joined
Jul 12, 2010
Messages
228
Reaction score
0
Location
Poole, Dorset
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
4
Hope you can help.

Did my first full inspection yesterday lunchtime, although I had put feed in about a month ago in an empty super below the crown board, and everything was normal then.

My set up is floor/brood and a half/empty super/crown board/roof.

When I opened the hive yesterday I discovered six or seven extensive combs drawn from the top of the crown board with lots of brood.

They have obviously gone mad in the last month and run out of room and with no queen excluder the queen has obviously been laying in this comb on the crown board.

For the moment I have put on a queen excluder and two supers with drawn comb frames and left the crown board with the comb on top as usual.

Question is what to do next.

Ensure the queen is back in the brood chamber (below the queen excluder) and leave the crown board as it is for them to sort out?

Move the empty super and crown board back down (put another crown board on top of the hive) to above the brood chamber and put the queen excluder on top of that?

Shake the bees from this comb into the brood chamber and take the comb off brood and all?

Many thanks.
 
Last edited:
My plan:

1) Make sure the queen is in the the bottom.

2) Leave the wild comb there for the existing brood to emerge.

3) Once emerged, remove it, it will probably be full of nectar and quite yummy on toast.

4) Unless they are a big colony, 3 supers may be rather a lot at the moment - depends where you are. Warm, southern England and a really big colony - fine. I would give them 1 "framed" super, and the wild comb super.
 
This is really good advice.

Thank you.

With regard to point 4 I'm in Poole and there are hundreds of bees obviously doing very well so I think the two supers are well-needed.
 
put on one to start and the second later as they start to fill the first
 
Brilliant thanks.

I'll take one framed super off at lunchtime - if it stops raining!
 
Brilliant thanks.

I'll take one framed super off at lunchtime - if it stops raining!

Now its on wait until its a nice fine day before you open up the hive.
Opening them up on a day when its been raining on and off is not a good idea unless you have no choice like when queen rearing or you are a commercial bee keeper.
 
Thanks Mike.

Yes I agree. I had decided that half an hour ago as it has been drizzling on and off all morning and there is more light rain forecast.

Good day tomorrow so I'll put it off until then.
 
I have been advised that if there is a flow on it is probably as well to put on two supers rather than have them fill the first quicker than expected and then start swarm preparations because the hive is too congested. Another piece of wisdom I picked up is to add the two supers and to put a sheet of newspaper between the two of them. Prick a few holes in the paper and the bees will make their own way up when they need the space. In theory, the newspaper helps prevent some of the heat loss up into the as yet empty super. Has anyone tried this and does it make any noticable difference?
 
Your bees are telling you that a single National is too small. Quite why anybody these days thinks it is of a suitable size for a bee colony is beyond me.

You do not need super space. You need more brood space.
 
Your bees are telling you that a single National is too small. Quite why anybody these days thinks it is of a suitable size for a bee colony is beyond me.

You do not need super space. You need more brood space.

maybe true, however with a super on they can move their stores up in to the super giving more room in the brood box.
 
I think that's absolutely right thurrock.

It is not the National size that created the challenge because the existing brood chamber is not full. They simply built upwards onto the crown board because they caught me unawares and I hadn't put a Queen Excluder on over the BC.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top