Brood box or super?

[Iainwilk01]

So, installed my nuc a couple of weeks ago and already almost all frames drawn out. I'm now looking to the next couple of weeks, do I add a second brood box (or is it too late in the season to be adding a BB to a new colony) or start adding supers to try and get some sort of harvest?
Will adding a BB make the bees more likely to survive winter or am I asking too much of them?
Thanks

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

At a guess I'd say neither yet - the important thing is, not how much frames they've drawn out, but have they filled them.
How much brood is there? there is soon going to be a point where, if the queen is laying really well the bees are going to be busy caring for the brood not foraging, but beware of the population explosion in a few weeks. As a rough guide, wait until you have seven frames of brood and a good population of bees then pop a super on.

 

[Iainwilk01]

Cheers for that, I'm not going to rush into it, just want it solid in my mind what I'm going to do when the time comes as there's so many different opinions out there.

 

[alldigging]

So, installed my nuc a couple of weeks ago and already almost all frames drawn out. I'm now looking to the next couple of weeks, do I add a second brood box (or is it too late in the season to be adding a BB to a new colony) or start adding supers to try and get some sort of harvest?
Will adding a BB make the bees more likely to survive winter or am I asking too much of them?
Thanks

It's the middle of June. Get a super on and give them some help drawing it out.

 

[Cussword]

It's the middle of June. Get a super on and give them some help drawing it out.

On what was a two week old nuc? Surely he should give them some time to populate the brood box?

.

 

[Poly Hive]

Just a heads up please.

When discussing what may or may not be possible with a particular unit then words like strong, weak, and so on are not helpful.

What defines a colonies strength or otherwise is how many frames of brood there are.

In this instance if the answer was 9 I would suggest supering on top and another BB below.

If the answer was 3 I would be discussing dummying up.

Massive difference you see.

PH

 

[Finman]

.
When that super is full if brood and bees, add them brood size box under the low brood box. Bees occupy new box during summer.
That colony should have 3 boxes in August.
But it is not now time to guess, how it goes along summer.

How many frames you have now in the box, and how many is covered with bees?
How many brood frames you have?

And the mesh floor? Is it open. Upper insulation?

 

[Iainwilk01]

10 frames and 1 dummy board. I've got 4 frames complete with brood, 3 with stores, 2 drawn out and 1 foundation. Have an OMF and been feeding 1:1 syrup for last week and a half

 

[Finman]

10 frames and 1 dummy board. I've got 4 frames complete with brood, 3 with stores, 2 drawn out and 1 foundation.

That is a good hive. No problems.

Next put a normal brood box under the recent, and so it goes.
.
I had in the beginning of May such hives, and now they have 3 boxes.
One brood box produces 3 boxes bees.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

10 frames and 1 dummy board. I've got 4 frames complete with brood, 3 with stores, 2 drawn out and 1 foundation. Have an OMF and been feeding 1:1 syrup for last week and a half

Look carefully at the drawn out next time you go in; you may find they had eggs in them. In which case, they're getting short of space. Depending on timing, the now several-day-old larvae should be easy to spot. Personally, I'd back off a bit on the feeding as soon as the weather improves even a little bit.

 

[Poly Hive]

In my view you might want to wait until they get up to 8 frames of brood before considering doing anything else. Four of brood is a decent nuc.

PH

 

[BeeJayBee]

10 frames and 1 dummy board. I've got 4 frames complete with brood, 3 with stores, 2 drawn out and 1 foundation. Have an OMF and been feeding 1:1 syrup for last week and a half

They've got enough stores to last for quite a while so it's probably best to stop feeding.

The usual "rule of thumb" for Nationals is to add a super when there are 7 or 8 frames of brood.

If you really want to add a super now you could put it above a queen excluder and above the feeder board - that's a board with a hole in it. If they do need the extra space they will find it.

P.S.
We aren't in Finland, and it isn't the beginning of May!