Discussing strength of a Spring Colony.

[Poly Hive]

If you tell us that your colony is covering ten frames then wow.. but...

How many frames of brood has it got?

You see if you say ten frames of bees at 2pm, then how many frames are they covering at 2am? I very much doubt they are still covering 10. Especially when you are looking at 2pm at 15 degrees C, and the temp drops to 5C at 2am.

Got the picture? The bees shrink, considerably, probably to the point where they are just managing to cover the brood... which neatly leads on to this...

The only way (apart from seeing them personally) the forum can judge your colony strength is to be told the amount of brood, and at that not only the amount of frames, but how much per frame. If you think about it four frames at 25% is one frame, four frames at 50% is two frames and so on....

We are here to help, but it seriously helps us if you give some accurate info.

PH

 

[merylvingien]

I had my first inspection yesterday on a couple of mine Ooop garden, one had 4 frames of brood, the other, 2 and a bit!
Interestingly enough, both these were swarms last year that i caught, the 4 framer was a late swarm and was wintered on just the brood box, the other was a earlish swarm that really built up well and wintered on a brood and super.
I think they could have done without the super.

 

[Poly Hive]

Arguably yes and were they insulated on top?

Lessons, lessons... memory?

PH

 

[merylvingien]

They got a bit of snow, does that count as insulation?

 

[oliver90owner]

I think they could have done without the super.

Please justify. Not sure what a new beek might make of that statement.

I could not bother, personally, if a colony was on the brood and a super of stores. The bees could move up for warmth, if they so wished. If you mean you filled it with sugar honey (all mine were filled with honey-honey!) and now it is a nuisance, that is another thing. If you mean the colony was not big enough for a box, then it may have been better on a reduced box (dummied) or even in a nuc.

It is difficult with some colonies to get them back to a single brood from a 14 x 12 with super, even late in the season. I have one such colony, as last season ended a bit sharpish at the end of September.

RAB

 

[Poly Hive]

They were swarms, and not very early ones.

Justification enough for me.

PH

 

[the naked beekeeper]

It is difficult with some colonies to get them back to a single brood from a 14 x 12 with super, even late in the season. I have one such colony, as last season ended a bit sharpish at the end of September.

RAB

Hi RAB,

Would you mind elaborating on this a bit please??

 

[oliver90owner]

Hi RAB,

Would you mind elaborating on this a bit please??

I will. It was too big for the one box at the end of my season last year. Therefore it stayed on a 14 x 12 plus a super, all winter. OK?

Reverting to one box in October is a bit late in the season anyway. One cannot stop them filling boxes with honey, unless there are no boxes to fill and I don't operate that way. I do not make every attempt to get them onto one box - or it may be a good excuse for them to swarm late in the season!

Simply the same as over-wintering on a double brood and a bit. Nothing really special there.

I do what the bees dictate in the circumstances. If they are better on the two boxes at the time, who am I too try to squeeze them onto one full box, with a relatively (for the time of the year) huge nectar collection programme being conducted by them? They may have filled the single brood with stores to the detriment of her maj producing enough eggs for the winter bees, so I decided to leave it on at that particular time.

I may have removed that box (at some point in October), but that was not an option.

RAB

 

[louiseww]

One of my hives has brood on two frames (mostly in the middle) but healthy with scattered holes - the other one has three frames with brood - overall I am pleased - but I may be fooling myself as I am a novice! Set to get up to 18C today, bees very busy at 9am!
Louise

 

[the naked beekeeper]

I will. It was too big for the one box at the end of my season last year. Therefore it stayed on a 14 x 12 plus a super, all winter. OK?

Reverting to one box in October is a bit late in the season anyway. One cannot stop them filling boxes with honey, unless there are no boxes to fill and I don't operate that way. I do not make every attempt to get them onto one box - or it may be a good excuse for them to swarm late in the season!

Simply the same as over-wintering on a double brood and a bit. Nothing really special there.

I do what the bees dictate in the circumstances. If they are better on the two boxes at the time, who am I too try to squeeze them onto one full box, with a relatively (for the time of the year) huge nectar collection programme being conducted by them? They may have filled the single brood with stores to the detriment of her maj producing enough eggs for the winter bees, so I decided to leave it on at that particular time.

I may have removed that box (at some point in October), but that was not an option.

RAB

And how is their predicament now?
As in, are you able to remove the super, to reduce space, or have they started brooding in the 14x12 and super?

Also, what would you do with a super full of ivy honey? (Whether yours was or wasn't) What would one do with it?

Thanks.

 

[oliver90owner]

I'll let you know when I have a look.

RAB