changing from standard brood to deep brood ..HELP

[sue jenkins]

I have 2 national hives and want to change to deep brood boxes. The bees are currently on standard national brood boxes. Do I need to factor anything specific or let them build brace comb for the difference in depth. if i am talking gibberish please be patient ... i am relatively new to beekeeping. thanks. sue jenkins

 

[Hawklord]

Personally I'd add an eke to the brood chamber and put the frames back allowing the bees to build brace comb. That way if the system doesn't work or you don't like it you can revert back to the standard brood and it will have cost you the price of an eke.

 

[jezd]

I have 2 national hives and want to change to deep brood boxes. The bees are currently on standard national brood boxes. Do I need to factor anything specific or let them build brace comb for the difference in depth. if i am talking gibberish please be patient ... i am relatively new to beekeeping. thanks. sue jenkins

Swap you I am going the other way on 2 of my hives!

Jez

 

[Eyeman]

Hi Sue
I'm changing two of my nationals over to 14 x 12 size frames. If you definitely want to change over I would buy new frames and adapt one of your national brood boxes to accommodate the new sized frame. Plenty of instructions on the BBKA web site.
Problem with letting the bees build comb on to the bottom of your existing frames is it can turn out to be messy and may have a lot of drone sized cells.

 

[David P]

The other alternative is Thornes do a conversion kit to convert standard to 14x12.
Basically its a hoffman converter with the extra frame, they also sell foundation to fill the space.
https://secure.thorne.co.uk/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/millhouse/thorne/shop/shania?ACTION=SHOP&THISPAGE=whatsnew.html&ORDER_ID=!ORDERID!
they are about halfway down the page.

They are a bit awkward to fit to existing frames but doable, and the bees quickly make them properly secure.


David