Brood on one side of box

[midnight sun]

Numbers can be boosted by putting the hive on the site of a larger colony, returning bees will have pollen or nectar so will be welcomed, and will provide much needed overnight warmth.


Ah, good point and probably less messing in the long run?

 

[Tom Bick]

A simple test for nosema would also be a good thing to do.

 

[itma]

...
Since then, I've had a look twice, and more than a month on from my first inspection, they're still the same with empty frames and worker eggs, then 3 or 4 frames of brood. On my last inspection, I pulled off the super directly above the brood box, and found that they'd built bridge comb between the brood box and the bottom of the super frames on the same side, and the bridge was full of brood where the comb split (I was going to go onto a brood-and-a-half this year, so left the excluder out). I can't remember where the brood in that super was though but I think it was concentrated on the same side.
...

To clarify things in your own mind, the term "Super" should be reserved for 'honey crop super'.
If you are using a shallow as a "half brood box" then it needs to be treated as a brood box - with proper brood spacing of frames (which for me means hoffman spacing and the box having rails not castellations - and especially not castellations giving a frame spacing more appropriate to a honey crop super).
The brace comb is likely as a result of the bees trying to create comb at brood spacing when the frames are too wide. They make double banked comb and all sorts of unhelpfully creative constructions.

You need to keep the brood together - the shallow frames with brood need to be exactly above (or below) the deep frames with brood.
If the bees have created a mess of comb in a (shallow) box with mis-spaced frames, I'd suggest putting it under the deep box. The bees sorting out process should result (after about a month) in that shallow being empty of brood, with the whole brood nest on the deep frames. Then you can take away the mis-drawn comb.


For a small colony, keeping it as warm as possible is a great help. You can close off any holes in the coverboard, put an empty shallow box above it, and fill the empty box with good insulation material. Celotex-type building insulation board is best, but a bin-bag full of Rockwool (or even packaging polystyrene chippings) will still be pretty good.


A nosema test would be a good idea, but a novice is likely going to require help from your local association (unless you have access to microscopes through your Uni).

... I didn't take anything off the hive last winter: as it was my first winter, I didn't know how much they'd need for themselves, so I thought I'd leave it all and see how much they'd used at the beginning of spring so that I could know roughly how much to leave them next winter. ...

Winter stores.
The rule of thumb is that a colony should have 40lb of 'stores' (honey, possibly plus stored syrup from feeding). That is about 8 'brood' (DN) frames completely full.
Don't leave shallow boxes above a Queen Excluder - you risk giving the bees the choice between staying with Q and potentially starving, or abandoning Q and moving to the food. (Cold bees, as a winter cluster, can't pop out for something to eat and then return.)

 

[Pollen]

Thanks for all your replies - in the end, I didn't actually act on them, but it was useful to have it all in mind as I looked at the colony.

When I opened the hive at the weekend, there were plenty of bees in there (and the flow of traffic at the entrance was impressive - almost all laden with massive pollen balls). They'd just started drawing foundation in the top super and there was a decent amount of brood in both of the next two shallow boxes down, and a couple of play cups on the top one. While I was inspecting, the sun went behind a tree and they all became a bit excitable, so I packed it in and went back the next day. However, it did show that the west side loses sunlight quite early in the day - I think it was about 4 o'clock or so - so that would explain them being keener on the other side.

I went back on the Sunday and checked the rest of it, and although there are still a few frames empty on the side of the bottom brood box, it's only the end 3. Where I'd previously said there were eggs had little white things that looked more like the piles of smaller grains, similar to varroa droppings or wax as someone ^^^ said - I'm sure they looked slightly different to how I'd remembered, but probably it was because I knew what to look for this time. I also finally found my queen for the first time - she had a small dab of faded and worn white paint on her - whether that's from the tip-ex method or whether she's a veteran, I don't know (the colony came from a swarm last year), but she seems to be doing her job well enough.

Anyway, I left it as I'd found it since they were pretty well filling the deep and two shallow boxes and had started drawing the super on top, so it didn't seem unreasonable to leave them the extra space.

...
If you are using a shallow as a "half brood box" then it needs to be treated as a brood box - with proper brood spacing of frames (which for me means hoffman spacing and the box having rails not castellations - and especially not castellations giving a frame spacing more appropriate to a honey crop super)...

I've been using Hoffman throughout - the only place I had comb in the 'wrong' place was joining the bottom deep brood box to the next shallow one on top. I scraped as much off as I could, trying to avoid the brood in it where I could.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

More importantly, how much brood was there? (ie, frames of eggs, larvae and sealed brood in the deep box) what do you call a 'decent' amount - still looks like you've given them loads too much space, it will take a while to sort the mess out IMHO

 

[BeeJayBee]

Thanks for all your replies - in the end, I didn't actually act on them ...

... there are still a few frames empty on the side of the bottom brood box, it's only the end 3.

More importantly, how much brood was there? (ie, frames of eggs, larvae and sealed brood in the deep box) what do you call a 'decent' amount - still looks like you've given them loads too much space, it will take a while to sort the mess out IMHO

with JBM, they've still got too much space. The rule of thumb with Nationals is to add a super when there are 7 frames of brood.

Your colony hasn't even finished drawing out the brood combs, you've added a super and they're moving upwards to where it's warmest. You're pleased they're drawing out super frames, perhaps because those are the frames beekeeper extract, but in the long term it will not benefit this colony. Where will they store food for the winter if you don't give them the chance to make the comb now?

Where I'd previously said there were eggs had little white things that looked more like the piles of smaller grains, similar to varroa droppings or wax as someone ^^^ said

Visible varroa droppings in the cells should tell you two things:-

• There is a high varroa load
• There are not enough bees to clean out the cells.