Brrod/Super swap for spring

[JohnnyD]

Hi all

I am going to swap the brood and super over and insert the queen excluder today as we are in for 3-4 days of warm weather, if i insert the queen excluder again, i guess i have to be 100% sure the queen is in the brood? what happens if i can't locate her, also if there are any frames in the super with eggs/larvae in them, does that matter ?

Thanks

JD

 

[Hivemaker.]

How many frames of brood do they have,it sounds like they may be better off without a super for a while,especially as you have removed two frames from the brood box in exchange for new ones,plus there is no activity in the super anyway.



From your previous post.
There was no activity in the super at all, i am a little worried.



http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16333

 

[gavin]

Go gently. They are cold-blooded creatures which need to keep the area for their babies warm. Don't disturb their arrangement - in most years you shouldn't even be lifting brood frames let alone rearranging boxes at this time. Let them build their way.

 

[Peaches]

JohnnyD,

Just before your Spring honey flow is the time to switch your super and brood box. Put your queen excluder on top of the brood box after you switch. Put an empty super on top of that. Leave the bees alone until you see eggs or new larvae in the brood box. Now switch again and put the brood box on the bottom, queen excluder, then the honey super with the brood on top of the excluder. Top off with the new empty super. Now, if you don't have any drone brood in the super, then close up and go your merry way.

If there is drone brood, then you need to leave an opening so when the drones hatch, they can get out of the hive. To do this, you need to prop the lid up with a stick about a pencil thickness. That will be approx. 3/8". When all the brood has hatched, then you can close up and continue to enjoy your bees.

 

[SugarPlum]

Brood in super

Hi Guys

On a similar point, I had my super under the brood box to overwinter. When the weather was warm a couple of weeks ago, I reconfigured and put the brood box at the bottom and the empty super above. I didn't add the queen excluder because we were promised more very cold weather and I didn't want to isolate my queen. However, the cold weather didn't come and my queen is now laying in both the brood box and super - help!! I'm not experienced enough to work on brood and a half. What should I do? Thanks!

 

[Arfermo]

Hi Guys

On a similar point, I had my super under the brood box to overwinter. When the weather was warm a couple of weeks ago, I reconfigured and put the brood box at the bottom and the empty super above. I didn't add the queen excluder because we were promised more very cold weather and I didn't want to isolate my queen. However, the cold weather didn't come and my queen is now laying in both the brood box and super - help!! I'm not experienced enough to work on brood and a half. What should I do? Thanks!

So time to put at least one super on before you regret delaying it.

 

[SugarPlum]

And just leave the queen laying in both the brood and super frame as she is already doing?

 

[gavin]

Forget all the box-swapping stuff from Florida. They do things differently over there and their climate is hugely different (even from Essex!). Well meant but for situations where the bees are going to explode into several boxes quickly in reliable weather.

OK, so you took an empty super off, and placed it on top. That's fine. I don't put supers underneath unless I'm trying to get them to empty them of stores during the active season, but if that is the advice you've had, so be it.

You now have brood in both boxes, a brood and a half arrangement. If you want to continue with that, when the two boxes are getting fairly full of bees add queen excluder and super on top. That will be the best way for now if you have prolific bees. It can take them a fortnight to get the hang of a box of foundation so don't delay too long.

If you didn't intend to go to brood and a half, try to check that the queen is in the bottom box and put the queen excluder between your existing two boxes to trap her in the brood box. After the brood emerges in the box above the excluder the bees will store honey in it and you'll have achieved that without chilling brood. Some people don't like taking honey from comb that was bred in, but that is up to you.

 

[SugarPlum]

Okay, thanks Gavin. I will see if I can find the queen and make sure she is in the bottom then, and put the queen excluder above the brood box but below the super. The only other way I could see out of it was to put the supers into a separate nuc box and see if they raised a new queen to keep them going - or sacrifice the brood altogether. There wasn't very much in the super when I checked, but there might be now, I will find out this afternoon. But the idea of sacrificing healthy brood seems harsh to me at my novice stage of beek.