Brood or Brood and a Half?

[EDCHEF]

To save a potential heated discussion over our bees next Tuesday I wonder if someone might care to comment
We (my wife and I) are both new beekeepers and our colony, which we acquired earlier in the year ,seems to be fairly full. We are using a national brood box with a QX and a super above. The foundation in the brood box has brood in all stages on every frame along with some stores and some pollen. Do we need to allow the queen to move up into the super to lay more eggs or, do we leave them as they are ,since the season is presumably slowing now
Any suggestions would be most helpful as I am sure that 'frank and open exchanges of views' over an open hive are not good for the bees!
Thanks
PS - My wife will not be reading this

 

[For want of a better word]

Some will agree some will disagree

I would remove the QX allow her into the super / 1/2 brood and the workers room to put more stores.
As winter approaches put the super / 1/2 brood under the BB, any brood will move up and bees will have some stores to use,
Next season a strong colony could even occupy 2 x bb and produce 100lbs of honey for your efforts!


well live in hope!!


enjoy

 

[Poly Hive]

Sadly the answer here is it all depends.

When you say your combs (drawn foundation is a comb btw) have all got brood on them it is a bit misleading. There are combs of brood and combs of brood. If you are describing 100% full combs of brood x 11 then yes let her rip but I would put the extra space under the existing brood not above as if she goes up she may concentrate her efforts up there and forget to lay the brood box as well.

If your combs are 75% or less then no she is fine as she is.

PH

 

[Hebeegeebee]

As the days are getting shorter the queen will reduce her laying - she possibly has already. For example one colony of mine has gone from 14 frames of brood all summer in a double brood Nat to 9 frames. The bottom brood chamber has no brood in it now and little stores. All 4 supers above the queen excluder are full and pretty well capped. Reduced brooding is perfect as there is less brood to nurse so more foragers when the main flow is on - about now. I personally don't like brood and a half. As Poly says, brood chamber under the existing brood,but I expect it won't be necessary for the summer.

How you prepare for the winter is a different matter! If, for example you put a brood chamber under the existing one, there will be space for the bees to go when the super comes off, and the colony could stay like that for the winter. Plenty of winter stores and most likely there will be an empty brood chamber with drawn comb at the end of March which could be taken away for use later. Drawn comb is a good thing to have.

Do you mean you're a closet forum user and your Wife doesn't know? How very dare you!