Double brood.

[Finman]

Big difference between opening hives every three days and actually getting on top of the situation too

Why to open hives every three days?
From where 3 comes?

 

[Worker bee]

Why to open hives every three days?
From where 3 comes?

Most of my hives draw queen cups in one day the queen can lay in them when drawn so if I lift the brood on the 3rd day I can see if any eggs ocupy them if they do I need to do something about it. While I have the box up I can knock the unococupied cells off. Nobody told me to do that I just figured it out for myself, it gives me a constant gauge on the state of my hives. On good days I'll check whole frames to see if I missed something or if I have any supersedure cells. A lot of people leave them until the queen lays in them then do something but I don't. Just my way and I'm sure plenty will tell me I'm doing it wrong

 

[jeff33]

Most of my hives draw queen cups in one day the queen can lay in them when drawn so if I lift the brood on the 3rd day I can see if any eggs ocupy them if they do I need to do something about it. While I have the box up I can knock the unococupied cells off.

Completely unnecessary, you are disturbing your bees for no valid reasons. Eggs in cups is not a sign of swarming prep, it's pretty common and most of the time they get removed.

....Nobody has told you to do this..... there is probably a good reason why!

 

[rolande]

Depends how you deal with it and how you check hives. Big difference in lifting a brood and going through every frame. I'm on top of my hives 100% also big diffence in one brood and three. If I was on one brood this time of the year I'd do something about it because something is wrong or I have a bad queen. Unless I restrict her to one box but why would I do that with a good laying queen? 10 capped brood is better than four. No need to restrict queens to a single brood your just suppressing her natural ability to lay. If you look at my posts you will see how to get a full brood box drawn in two weeks even with this cxppy weather

Each to their own but as I've no wish to start hiring help (or dealing with stress induced issues) I'll give three day inspections a miss.

 

[jeff33]

It sounds like the kim Jong-un approach to beekeeping

 

[rolande]

It sounds like the kim Jong-un approach to beekeeping

Certainly goes part of the way to explaining his recommendation (*need*) on another thread to use thymol treatments through the summer

 

[Erichalfbee]

Just my way and I'm sure plenty will tell me I'm doing it wrong

Some will and some will just sigh and wonder how you arrived at this practice. Some beginners will actually try it.
I hope they don't.

Certainly goes part of the way to explaining his recommendation (*need*) on another thread to use thymol treatments through the summer

Yes. Imagine the stress caused !

 

[Worker bee]

Some will and some will just sigh and wonder how you arrived at this practice. Some beginners will actually try it.
I hope they don't.

Yes. Imagine the stress caused !

I don't consider lifting a brood box stressful or knocking down queen cups, plenty of beekeepers lift brood boxes to check a hive, If more new beekeepers checked hives more often maybe so many wouldn't lose them to swarming. The time will come when I don't have the time to check so often but I don't have the hives to lose to swarming at the moment so I'll do my best to stop them. Instead of bashing people for practice's you don't agree with you could always explain yours and why it's the proper way or don't you have the time to be polite and helpful, only time to rip people apart for your own amusement?

 

[drex]

Perhaps it's stressful to the bees?

 

[rolande]

We're not the people who've come out of nowhere and started giving dodgy advice.

We don't all agree on everything, that's a fact but the op was pretty well answered before you started mentioning checkerboarding; promoting three day inspections to keep on top of them although you're going to split them this weekend to keep on top of them....

Poorly thought out nonsense.

As for being helpful, if we dissuade just one new beekeeper from opening hives every three days, job done.

 

[Worker bee]

We're not the people who've come out of nowhere and started giving dodgy advice.

We don't all agree on everything, that's a fact but the op was pretty well answered before you started mentioning checkerboarding; promoting three day inspections to keep on top of them although you're going to split them this weekend to keep on top of them....

Poorly thought out nonsense.

As for being helpful, if we dissuade just one new beekeeper from opening hives every three days, job done.

I said I was splitting my hives and by that I mean the ones that need splitting not all of them. But if I hadn't checked I wouldnt have a plan to begin with even if it is poorly thought out nonsense. But I'll have splits with queen cells ready to hatch and new colonies, and my hives that were showing signs they need to be split I'll hang onto, that was my goal and hopefully it works

 

[Erichalfbee]

I don't consider lifting a brood box stressful or knocking down queen cups, plenty of beekeepers lift brood boxes to check a hive, If more new beekeepers checked hives more often maybe so many wouldn't lose them to swarming. The time will come when I don't have the time to check so often but I don't have the hives to lose to swarming at the moment so I'll do my best to stop them. Instead of bashing people for practice's you don't agree with you could always explain yours and why it's the proper way or don't you have the time to be polite and helpful, only time to rip people apart for your own amusement?

I haven’t bashed you at all. I was careful not to.
The last line of your quote, by the way, was in reply to Rolande and a little disingenuous of you to include it without explanation

 

[Worker bee]

I haven’t bashed you at all. I was careful not to.
The last line of your quote, by the way, was in reply to Rolande and a little disingenuous of you to include it without explanation

Maybe I got the wrong impression but it seemed like you were all ganging up on me and takeing the mick. I don't claim to know everything or be an expert but I came on here to learn and hopefully help

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Completely unnecessary, you are disturbing your bees for no valid reasons. Eggs in cups is not a sign of swarming prep, it's pretty common and most of the time they get removed.

....Nobody has told you to do this..... there is probably a good reason why!

 

[Worker bee]

All I know is that I've managed to build up and keep quite a few hives from swarming this year, and if I look at all the posts from people who haven't managed that I must have got something right even though I have no mentor nor ever had one. I think I've done quite well

 

[rolande]

Maybe I got the wrong impression but it seemed like you were all ganging up on me and takeing the mick. I don't claim to know everything or be an expert but I came on here to learn and hopefully help

Although this was a reply to Erichalfbee I assume you include me when you talk of ganging up and taking the mick....

Neither accusation would be accurate, I doubt there are many people on this forum who would want to gang up with me... I've upset and/or argued with most of the longstanding members at some point. That said, I have absolutely no issue using the newly added 'like' button when those same people write a particularly good post or share a clever idea or illuminating observation.

Taking the mick.... no, not me. Disagreeing with the way you seemed to be presenting your methods as sound practice, yes. I've tried all sorts of management methods over the years although I've now paired things right down because simplicity (and I *do not* mean non intervention) seems to work so much better than any of the schemes I had a go at. If you've found a sound method of keeping your bees fine but I cant help the fact that I get an uneasy feeling when reading some of your advice.

I'm probably wrong, I often am.

 

[GuyNir]

I said I was splitting my hives and by that I mean the ones that need splitting not all of them. But if I hadn't checked I wouldnt have a plan to begin with even if it is poorly thought out nonsense. But I'll have splits with queen cells ready to hatch and new colonies, and my hives that were showing signs they need to be split I'll hang onto, that was my goal and hopefully it works

Q cells ready to emerge? Or even better Q‘s ready to emerge from cells?

 

[sean-a]

I'm probably wrong, I often am.

I think that the benefit of this forum is that we can all learn from others mistakes and successes in equal measure.
My mistakes probably outnumber the successes so far, but I try not to repeat them.
I don't need to repeat mistakes to be fair, my bees find new ways to teach me how little I know each year!

 

[elainemary]

I don't consider lifting a brood box stressful or knocking down queen cups, plenty of beekeepers lift brood boxes to check a hive, If more new beekeepers checked hives more often maybe so many wouldn't lose them to swarming. The time will come when I don't have the time to check so often but I don't have the hives to lose to swarming at the moment so I'll do my best to stop them. Instead of bashing people for practice's you don't agree with you could always explain yours and why it's the proper way or don't you have the time to be polite and helpful, only time to rip people apart for your own amusement?

Perhaps an option would be to consider clipping your queens instead? That would give you up to 14 days between inspections before a virgin emerged. If a mistake was made & they swarmed, the bees would return & likely you'd find the queen under the hive, Would be less stressful to the bees and would give you some time back...

I've tried the pivoting 2 brood boxes to look for cells and doesn't work if cells are made on the sides of frames. Did it last week, no cells underneath, but when i looked through, 3 in the top box on the sides and 2 in the bottom on the sides.
Food for thought...

 

[user 819]

3 day lifting for cups is a waste of time and a chore

I don't consider lifting a brood box stressful or knocking down queen cups, plenty of beekeepers lift brood boxes to check a hive,

You might not consider it but the bees will likely not be to amused with all your fiddling and disturbance.
Beekeepers do lift boxes but not every 3 days.
Just looking for eggs in cups is futile, using this method doesn't help you find hidden QC's on the side of a frame or any plumb on the face of a comb.