Do i need to reduce brood boxes

[BCBEE]

I have a single national hive

I put another brood box in earlier in the year to try to aviod swarming but they still went albeit it late in mid august. !!

They have recovered well though and there are plenty of bees in the hive. They arev mainly in the top brood box where i put a frame from the original hive along with frames of fountation. The top brook box contains 4 frames
of brood stores in the middle and 7 frames of 100% honey

the bottom brood box had 3 frames of brood and stores but very little on the other frames.

Theres a full super of honey as well

Do i need to consider taking the bottom brook box off now and just leaving them in the top box with the honey in. If so i assume its done by swapping top and bottom and fitting a clearer board....but that doesnt sound right as what happens to the brood that was in the bottom or do i wait till they have all hatched before removing.

Phill

 

[Arfermo]

I'm not quite certain that I understand what you are driving at but you don't need more than 2 brood boxes this time of the season and if the lowest one is eventually empty it will be a useful draught excluder later on. As for the super, suggest you either extract what you can from it and store the rest until spring or alternatively stick it under the 2 BBs and let the bees take it up and then remove it - but be quick about it as there is srtill ivy to forage any day now.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

That's quite a recovery! richardbees was telling me there's a thread on here somewhere about wintering in a vertical configuration like that; he described it as an advanced technique that he did not recommend for a newbie like me. Might we worth having a poke around in the search function for it.

<ADD> Probably this one http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=25561</ADD>

 

[Swarm]

BCBEE,
You could shuffle the brood frames and make one nest in one chamber with stores either end but there really is no problem with leaving them on double brood. I have a hive in the same situation (4x brood, 7x stores) in the top and way too many bees to cram into a single brood.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have a single national hive

I put another brood box in earlier in the year to try to aviod swarming but they still went albeit it late in mid august. !!

They have recovered well though and there are plenty of bees in the hive. They arev mainly in the top brood box where i put a frame from the original hive along with frames of fountation. The top brook box contains 4 frames
of brood stores in the middle and 7 frames of 100% honey

the bottom brood box had 3 frames of brood and stores but very little on the other frames.

Theres a full super of honey as well

Do i need to consider taking the bottom brook box off now and just leaving them in the top box with the honey in. If so i assume its done by swapping top and bottom and fitting a clearer board....but that doesnt sound right as what happens to the brood that was in the bottom or do i wait till they have all hatched before removing.

Phill

It sounds like there wasn't much need to put them on double brood to start with. No need for much extra feeding in readiness for winter - leave them as they are for the moment. As the winter goes on they should move upwards naturally after the stores therefore in spring the reduced brood cluster should be in the top brood box thus you can remove the bottom one, then re-think your swarm control for next year.

 

[enrico]

As long as the fullest bb is on the to then you will be fine. Good luck for winter!
E

 

[Finman]

.
If I were you, I would put 5 frames into ther wintering box, with dummy board.
Then shake the rest of bees in front of the hive. If they all go in, the room is not at least too small.

If the hive has now 3 brood frames, the cluster will be quite small in winter.
When other frames are capped honey, propably the brood area has not been very big.

Reduce the mesh floor opening, if you have such. 1 cm open gap is enough for ventilation.


.

 

[Finman]

BCBEE,
there really is no problem with leaving them on double brood. .

Well, one box colony to 2 box wintering. That is a real problem.
Perhaps the colony is alive in spring, but that kind of wintering makes no sense. (except let-it-be-style)

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well, one box colony to 2 box wintering. That is a real problem.
Perhaps the colony is alive in spring, but that kind of wintering makes no sense. (except let-it-be-style)

Seven frames of brood and seven of stores - not going to fit in a nuc is it?

 

[Swarm]

Well, one box colony to 2 box wintering. That is a real problem.
Perhaps the colony is alive in spring, but that kind of wintering makes no sense. (except let-it-be-style)

Well unless I have mistaken three frames of brood and stores to be something other than three frames containing brood (in which case my apologies) there are seven brood frames in total. So you advise chucking the bees out and let them find their way into a dummied down single chamber with just five frames? Two questions :
Where does the stores go?
Should the other two frames of brood be abandoned?

 

[Finman]

Two questions :
Where does the stores go?
Should the other two frames of brood be abandoned?

The brood frames = winter bees. You cannot abandom them.

Two ways to fill stores:

1) you feed sugar or
2) you change the brood frames to honey frames when bees have emerged.
The last is better.

.

 

[Swarm]

There are seven total brood frames.

 

[Finman]

There are seven total brood frames.

How many frames had brood during September. That rules, how big will be the cluster.

.

 

[Swarm]

Read the OP again. Seven brood frames, four up top three below.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Read the OP again. Seven brood frames, four up top three below.

Probably not the way they're counted in fFnland? it is 2,000 Km away don't you know

 

[REDWOOD]

It is a bit misleading, I had to read it twice and still not sure if the box had brood or stores in the middle

 

[Finman]

Probably not the way they're counted in fFnland? it is 2,000 Km away don't you know

Jee. You should learn to read your own brood frames. 2 wintering boxes to one box hive. Plaa plaa.

 

[Finman]

It is a bit misleading, I had to read it twice and still not sure if the box had brood or stores in the middle

It is same to me... brood stores...

But beginners seldom understand what meaning is with brood amount information.

 

[Finman]

Probably not the way they're counted in fFnland? it is 2,000 Km away don't you know

I do not know how to count frames. However I reared in two month from 3 frames mating nucs to 10 frame hives. They all have now 7 frames brood and full of bees.

You have there 6 months time, and you get no better.

Carry on counting....

At the end of May I started 6 hives with 3 frames, and at the end of July they had 6-7 boxes and brought 60 -80 kg honey.

Jenkins, I am really tired to your idiotism. Allways that kälä käläkäläkälä

.

.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I do not know how to count frames. However I reared in two month from 3 frames mating nucs to 10 frame hives. They all have now 7 frames brood and full of bees.

You have there 6 months time, and you get no better.

Carry on counting....

At the end of May I started 6 hives with 3 frames, and at the end of July they had 6-7 boxes and brought 60 -80 kg honey.

[.

All very nice Finman but doesn't change the fact you didn't read or understand the OP properly and everything else you've posted on this thread is thus gibberish

Jenkins, I am really tired to your idiotism. Allways that kälä käläkäläkälä
.

I'm really tired of your unwarranted attacks and snide comments to others on this forum when in this case you were (perhaps understandably) mistaken but you won't be corrected and prefer to rant.