I got my colony of bees last July,and they have overwintered in a National Brood Box.They have had some fondant,but I see that they are now bringing in pollen.
The lady who I did a lot of practical work with last year has told me to put on another brood box,when I do my first inspection.
What she didn`t explain, was how to configure the foundation over the two boxes.
I only have new foundation,I do have dummy boards.
Please could someone point me in the right direction.
Relax!
Firstly "First Inspection" (note the capital letters!) this is the spring cleaning session when things have warmed up and the season is properly under way.
Only the ultra-orthodox would make things harder than need be by denying themselves the opportunity to check BEFORE THEN how their bees are doing.
This current mild spell provides an opportunity for basic colony assessment.
- have they got enough stores to last them until you are likely to check again?
- is there a good indication of healthy worker brood? (and some open brood?) No need to go searching for the Queen!
- and is there still plenty empty comb for Q to lay in?
- and of course you'd like to see no shortage of bees in the hive ...
From that basic eyeballing you can see what stage they are at.
They'd be doing well to have more than a couple of frames of brood right now.
OK. Double brood. You'd only be thinking of that when they start to be filling the existing brood box - brood on almost all (8?) of the frames.
No rush.
There's no magic about double brood. Just take the current brood box off the floor. Put on another brood box, filled with (foundation) frames, lift the old brood on top and you have double brood. The bees will draw out the new frames as and when they feel they need them.
If your bees don't really need double brood (most don't), then the top box will gradually fill up with honey. This is pretty damn heavy to lift on and off at every inspection.
However, one beefarmer reason for using double brood is the hope that swarm cells would be built between the boxes - where you can spot them during a very brief "tipping" inspection.
Another reason is that splitting a double brood hive to two single broods is one of the easiest ways of "making increase" (getting more colonies).
Some would advocate going double by rearranging the frames to make a two-high, narrow colony bounded by dummy boards, and being given only one frame of foundation in each box at any one time. I'm not sure that is better, and I'm certain that it is more fuss!
My suggestion is that you should discuss with your mentor the reasons for her suggestion, and how she would go about things.
One of the most important things for a beginner to understand is where they are heading. Any advice has an implicit direction of travel. You need to make sure that you and your mentor have the same assumptions!
Double brood means dealing with heavy boxes at every inspection, and never knowing which box the Q might be in!
For double brood, the CWJ poly boxes make some sense. Holding one frame less, and being poly, they are more than 10% lighter to move. And they are exactly the same external size as wooden boxes, so work with wooden floors, roofs, etc.
Brood and a half is adequate for most colonies, but is much much less flexible. The half-box is also lighter! My choice of 14x12 gives me brood and a half brood space, simple single brood inspections ... and a bloody heavy lump on the rare occasions I need to move a colony!
Talk through the whys, the hows and the whens. Don't accept instructions like "go double brood" without understanding where you are headed.
