By what name is Renson's limited broodnest method known in English?

[Jackolantern]

I live in the Netherlands and I'm keeping my bees like this. Living in town so I cant really have them swarming. I joint the local beekeeping association last year and this is how they are teaching us to keep the bees. My hives are 11-frames, but I put the queen in the 2nd broodbox and use two excluders to keep her there. She only gets 7frames to play with. So the rest of the hive is free for food. They tell us that this keeps the bees from wanting to swarm because they Always have enough room and the queen will lay less meaning that she will live longer. Also there is less brood to be cared for so you get more forraging bees, and they use less honey for food meaning there is more left over for me.

 

[Little John]

What happens to the drones ?

LJ

Sorry - thought this was a new thread ....

So - what's the difference between this method and (say) putting a queen with clipped wings in a 7-frame brood box with a QX over it ? That way the drones can leave when they want to, but the queen can't. But - can't see this stopping swarming - if anything I'd say it's more likely to encourage it.

But - what's the experience - in practice - of those who have used this method ? Doesn't appeal to me personally, but it would be interesting to know ...

 

[Jackolantern]

What happens to the drones ?

LJ

Well, i have a frame where i nailed a vertial stick 1/2 way right, so it is split in two and i remove the drones every week or two, first the right side then the left. I know they aren't making drones for no reason and it costs alot of work, but I am told that this way I will have less mites in the hive. I try to free as many of the guys as I can when I am checking them the drones tend to want to leave when I open the hive. The bees build the comb for the drones themselves and the birds love the larve, it isnt perfect, but i end up with more honey in the season and they don't swarm so it is a win win. You can't leave them like this obviously you do have to check up on them often, I am in there at least once every 10days to pull out the drones and make sure they have enough space to build.

 

[Finman]

Well, i have a frame where i nailed a vertial stick 1/2 way right, so it is split in two and i remove the drones every week or two, .

It is not possible to handle drones that way. Drones will be here and there in brood combs.

 

[Dishmop]

Do you know of any other beekeeping methods that involve some kind of broodnest size limiting,

Not adding any boxes would work.

 

[Jackolantern]

What happens to the drones ?

LJ

Sorry - thought this was a new thread ....

So - what's the difference between this method and (say) putting a queen with clipped wings in a 7-frame brood box with a QX over it ? That way the drones can leave when they want to, but the queen can't. But - can't see this stopping swarming - if anything I'd say it's more likely to encourage it.

But - what's the experience - in practice - of those who have used this method ? Doesn't appeal to me personally, but it would be interesting to know ...

part of the theory is that because the nest is not allowed to get bigger than 7 frames the bees are not getting crowded enough to swarm, a small nest will not swam as quiclky as a big one. the other 4 frames in the box are coverd on both sides with a thin sheet of wood or whatever so they still have the space. a smaller hive isn't going to have the same effect.

our beekeeping association is one of the only ones doing it this way here and what i hear from the old timers is that the bees are much less likely to want to swarm, you get more honey, more polen, and because there is less brood to feed and take care of you get more bees out there gathering nectar etc and they dont use as much themselves so there is more left for the winter. i havent heard anything about them living longer, but they are gathering longer just because there is less work in the hive for them to do they are starting earlier as gatherers.

even though i have only 7 frames for brood the whole hive is rammed full of bees, 2 full size brood boxes is what we use 22 frames. as far as letting the drones out... the drones are sacreficed to keep mite numbers down.

we put the excluders in early in the spring and remove them in late july with the last honey harvest.

When you take out the excluder and have a look through both boxes at the end of the season you find that the lower box has a large amount of polen and honey, what they really are going to be needing to make good winter bees. Iam not sure how long they have been doing it like this here,but they are pretty convinced that it works. I am keeping them like this because I can't have swarming.

 

[farbee]

If anyone has a queen bee that can lay 3,000 eggs/day we are interested in purchasing it.

How much?

 

[rockdoc]

This is one of the more interesting threads i have sen on here for a while. Its always great to swop idea's with our near neighbors.

 

[richardbees]

Fred Howard, a Surrey BKA luminary, gave a talk last May describing his method of swarm prevention with a National hive that iirc involved always keeping a shallow with undrawn foundation above the brood area. No QEs or deep boxes but weekly rearranging/adding the shallows.

(I have the notes somewhere!)