Double Brood??

[Hivemaker.]

Edit: It's poor policy to edit your post. You were being sarcastic but now you've added "Although etc"

Wrong Swarm,i edited my post before i had seen your reply, or it was even written by you,check the times,and i was not being sarcastic i assure you,and if it appeared that way then i do appologise.

 

[Dave /Oscroft]

How prolific

some one asked how prolific were your bees, if youve got Carniolans which I started with theyve been a right pain this and last year. Ive still got some which must be a generation or two on now and they seemed to breed like the proverbial rabbit, so to speak. I requeen'd two colonies this year with a Buckfast Cecropia queen so I'll see what happens next year.
As for frame sizes The Carnies werent even happy with a 14x12 ! on two of the colonies I put a standard national brood box on top and they filled that out + three supers and still swarmed out. So now ive got a right old muddle some hives on double brood some on 14x12 +14x 8.5 and one on brood and a half at the mo, what a mess. I'll try and simplify them next year ! hopefully!
They definatly havent read the books, or not the ones ive got.

Dave W

 

[Baggyone]

Transfer from STD deep brood to 14x12. My method....

Queen ex on top of brood. 14x12 over the excluder with foundation in. Let the bees draw the box out. Swap boxes over and let queen fill out to the 14x12. Once you inspect and you know she's in the bottom box put the excluder between. Allow to hatch out then remove the STD brood.

If you fancy queen rearing the why not put two or three supers between the excluder and STD brood box.

Baggy

Sent from my ZTE-BLADE using Tapatalk

 

[Greatbigchicken]

Thanks "Baggyone" that doesn't sound too tricky.

 

[hedgerow pete]

double broods, double trouble and effort, no thanks

 

[Poly Hive]

There is a place for them HP, and I use them now and again. If I really need to find the queen I just use excluders to pin her to the one box then it is as easy as ever it is to find her.

PH

 

[Finman]

double broods, double trouble and effort, no thanks

douple brood, 3 fold yield


i cannot understand, what trouble. Why to find the queen so many times.

The queen is mostly in upper brood box. To me it is enough when I see that there are eggs and larvae and NOT queen cells.


It is easy to see what colony needs. A good colony needs often 15 frames to lay. A poor layer does not need even whole box. 6 frames is enough. That 6 frames layer does not need even excluder.


.

 

[Finman]

.
One thing more in 2 or 3 box brood.

i inspect normally only the upper broodbox. it is funny but the lowest box is full of angry old foragers.
I avoid to inspect the lowest box. What I find there is pollen and stings. In late summer I push the queen to lay into lowest box or I move the brood frames into it before winter feeding.
The lowest box is a splended pollen store.

 

[Flatters]

I watched a video where there were double BB and they only inspected the top box. The suggestion there was that any swarm cells would only be on the bottom the the top BB frames, "never" (dare I say never?) any in the lower box. Also they left one frame in the bottom brood box with no foundation. This was then made into a drone brood frame by the bees which was then taken out by the beekeeper and culled.

I have one of my colonies on double BB and have had similar experiences as Finman has stated. Apart from drone brood culling (which was accidental) I have not had good experiences going into the bottom box. Over winter I will decide if all my other colonies will be going on double BB in spring.

 

[djg]

Bob Bee,

One finesse which you may want to consider as you transition to 14 x 12s....

I have always left a single National brood frame near the centre of the brood nest in each 14 x 12, since the bees will happily build drone cells at the bottom of the shallower frame to match the other, deeper frames. This free brood comb is easily harvested - when the drone brood is almost done - with a single thrust of the hive tool as part of my anti-varroa integrated pest management.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

.

it is funny but the lowest box is full of angry old foragers.
.

I've noticed that too. The lower box is always less happy that the top brood box.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Having the correct bee space also makes a huge difference,Langstroth,smith hives ect, would leave some fairly large gaps if cross boxed.

Out of an instant need, I have purchased a couple of hives from ebay in the past. (Never again). Definitely not Hivemakers (!) as I've seen hives - broods and supers with no bee space, wrong bee space, not square. Don't lie flat. I've had to hack them about to correct the errors. I can therefore speak from experience that if the spacing is wrong, then you get comb where you don't want it.

Also I have some supers with 10 castellations and others which are different so brace comb builds up between supers too. (A job for the winter to standardize).

I purchased one MB national and in that with brood over brood there is less than a 4 mm bee space between vertical frames (good for crushing bees) and with super over brood there's 12 mm. Something not quite right there in the bee space department!

 

[mbc]

I purchased one MB national and in that with brood over brood there is less than a 4 mm bee space between vertical frames (good for crushing bees) and with super over brood there's 12 mm. Something not quite right there in the bee space department!

Really ! thats a bit disturbing. How about the space between supers ?

 

[oliver90owner]

Really ! thats a bit disturbing. How about the space between supers ?

It is. I can't comment as I only bought supers and screwed a couple together as a 14 x 12. The super I have here, and the frame resting across the box are indicating a 10mm bee space on measurement with my micrometer (frame side bar 140mm and shallow box 150mm). So, if anything a little toward/over the top side of an ideal suggested bee space. But, if most UK supers were 6 inches deep in Imperial days and frame side bars were 5 1/2 inches, the super-to-super bee space would be about half an inch, practically? This may account for a small amount of wax on the top bars or below the bottom bars.

Not yet found any problem with the roof being stuck down to the frames, but not long enough in service, as yet. The 10mm bee space (as a brood), would not be insurmountable for me, just a pain if I found I needed to reduce it slightly.

RAB

 

[Hivemaker.]

But, if most UK supers were 6 inches deep in Imperial days
RAB

If they were the correct dimension they would be 5 7/8.

 

[oliver90owner]

If they were the correct dimension they would be 5 7/8.

I was looking at the Dave Cushman site. You are correct. Not checked any of my timber supers. I know the broods are all over the place and likey +3mm on the nominal size(?). 'Fraid my tape measure only works in metric these days! (well nearly always!)

Regards, RAB

 

[Hivemaker.]

This is as good a place as any to get the old imperial measurements.

http://www.scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/learning/documents/number 4 national hive.pdf

 

[Finman]

.
Cross box, - the stupiest idea for a long time.

Interesting but impossible. Bees can make burr what ever the direction is. That does not hinder that I take honey away.

 

[enrico]

Finman, why are you so against cross boxing? If it works then why not use it? Or are you just being argumentative for another reason. I was offering advice. If you want to accept it then fine but if you don't then don't call it stupid cos it isn't, just don't so it. Helpful hints are put on here to give ideas to new beekeepers who are looking for a solution to a problem. The choice of using them is personal. If you think it is stupid then at least give a good reason
E

 

[Finman]

Finman, why are you so against cross boxing? If it works then why not
E

sorry, i did not know that national is square.
Langstroths are assymmetric boxes.