Broodbound

[BoutBees]

My bees keep on going 'brood bound' that is instead of storing honey in the honey super they store it in the brood box. I was advised to take away the queen excluder and let the bees up but the queen goes up and lays brood eggs in the honey frames. Does anybody have any ideas?

BoutBees

 

[Finman]

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Your colony i so small that it is not able to keep super warm and occupye it.

 

[johncorne]

Check that the bees can get through the QE - I had a colony like that last year, and replacing the cheap plastic QE with a traditional one sorted it. Same QE in a different hive later was no problem for that colony!

Jc

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Don't know what your weather is like, but there shouldn't be a QE on at all over winter, the queen can get isolated and chill

 

[Finman]

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The queen may be so bad layer that it cannot make bigger colony.

It is better to buy a new queen.

 

[Arfermo]

My bees keep on going 'brood bound' that is instead of storing honey in the honey super they store it in the brood box. I was advised to take away the queen excluder and let the bees up but the queen goes up and lays brood eggs in the honey frames. Does anybody have any ideas?QUOTE]

Sounds very much as though you need to give them the extra brood space below any QE? Depending on your weather it is probably a bit early to have a QE on just yet anyway, though having said that, one of mine are so busy already that I put a QE and suoer on top of the brood and a half yesterday.

 

[Finman]

My bees keep on going 'brood bound' :

How many boxes your each hive has in Summer?

.

 

[drstitson]

are we talking a super of drawn comb OR new foundation.

if a consistent problem why not extract the full outer frames and return empty to middle of brood box?

BTW i was presuming that OP was asking a question re his experience last season so he knows what to do ahead of this years flow rather than a question about brood and QE NOW.

 

[susbees]

BTW i was presuming that OP was asking a question re his experience last season so he knows what to do ahead of this years flow rather than a question about brood and QE NOW.

Quite. Do you remember how many frames of bees there were when you tried to add the super?

 

[Finman]

The basic problem in this figure is that colony is too small. It has open mesh floor down and an empty super up. The hive is so cold that colony cannot build up. -I just suppose.

In normal hive brood box is full of brood and bees store honey over excluder.

Hive is not honey boud. Problem is something else bound.

The colony can oppupye during summer only one box. Why?

Swarms escaped?

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[colinlee]

broodbound

hi boutbees,

I use commercials and found the same thing ,try compressing the frames down to 8 using 2 x double dummy boards,you will find this will force the bees upwards to work the supers this works for me even when demmerring !!!.then before winter feeding remove the double -DBs and add draw frames .

 

[Finman]

hi boutbees,

I use commercials and found the same thing ,try compressing the frames down to 8 using 2 x double dummy boards,you will find this will force the bees upwards to work the supers this works for me even when demmerring !!!.then before winter feeding remove the double -DBs and add draw frames .

And how big are your hives in the main yield?



.

 

[drstitson]

finman - by the sounds of it 1 brood box and an empty super!

 

[susbees]

Hold your horses, if we're talking Galtee/native-type bees then colinlee's advice could be fine. Not everyone keeps Italian/Carni-type bees. There are many colonies on single national that do just fine...so buffering a commercial box is also fine.

I have a feeling that we're talking weak colonies here but until the OP returns we won't know for sure...

 

[oliver90owner]

Finman seems to be favourite here. Hive too big for the bees - or the bees not prolific enough for the hive. If the bees don't need the space they will fill it with something - if it's not brood there is not much other choice than honey.

Not a lot of info from the OP and a lot of guessing going on.

Added: Susbees got there before me.

 

[colinlee]

brood bound

hello gang,

ive use this method with weak and lazy colonies with Italion queens otherwise they wont move out of the brood box ..

 

[Finman]

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That I mean, what we are talking about?

 

[colinlee]

broodbound

finman

Sorry you have got me there a skep !!!.I thought the discussion was about commercial B/B problems.

 

[Finman]

finman

I thought the discussion was about commercial B/B problems.

My only problem is that I lost my ladder...

 

[Finman]

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Oolrait! I fount it!