Double (national) brood vs. 14x12

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We are in a bit of a quandary. We have bought extra brood boxes for our national hives in case the bees need more space, obviously we don't have drawn frames for these. Last year we had a brood and a half. Not sure whether to stick with that and run the risk of swarming or bite the bullet and go for a double brood?
You've bought the brood boxes, so you may as well use them? Should be no problem getting the frames drawn out in spring.
I agree with Boston bees. Also you can always run double brood with a few less frames, just dummy them down with a bit of foiled insulation made to size, or just plain dummy boards. 8 over 8 was a system used by some keepers in scotland, primarily with smith hives as I recall, don't know if anyone regularly still uses it these days. This extract is from stuff written by Ian Craig. These would have been wooden hives.
"A queen excluder and the first honey super are put on top. This super should be of drawn comb so that when the flow starts, honey will be stored in the super and not allowed to restrict the space in the brood chamber. (See Fig.4). If you have been working on the single brood chamber system you might want to experiment with the sixteen- comb doubling system which I advocate. If so, this is the time to double your colony. In the unlikely event that you have spare drawn combs, these should be used, otherwise you will have to use five frames containing foundation. Put the foundation in the top brood chamber and feed three litres of spring syrup to simulate a nectar flow in order to get the foundation drawn. Don’t super the hive until the feeder is removed or syrup may be stored in it. Be aware that on the year that you first double a colony it will be at the expense of the spring honey crop unless it is a very good year, but you should reap the benefits during the summer and in subsequent years. The advantages of the double brood chamber system are:
  1. Adjustable---11combs(or fewer) to 22combs.
  2. Good air circulation and ventilation.
  3. Easy to manipulate–no combs propped outside the hive.
  4. Easy to check for swarm preparations.
  5. Room available when most required–for expansion in spring and to accommodate bees, brood and stores in autumn.
  6. Frames are interchangeable between the two chambers.
  7. Foundation can be drawn in the warmth of the top brood chamber.
  8. Safety valve in case of late supering–this should not be allowed to happen. After a week of the honey flow more breeding and super room should be provided.
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If your bee stock is swarmy, they do not care, how much you give to them more space.
Only artificial swarm and clipped queen wing can stop the swarms escape.
Thank you, they are all new queens from last year so not sure yet if they are swarmy, hopefully not. Two are bought buckfast and the otherv two are queens the bees raised so fingers crossed
 
We run our nationals on brood box through out with no shallows for supers, double brood in the spring up to swarming time and then demaree them as needed. if we need to free space in the brood box we lift brood above an excluder also, that can be used for creating nucs or boosting other colonies as and when needed.

Langstroth though is deep broods with medium supers, though perhaps mediums throughout would be good, this is popular in Finland and Estonia. Others like the USA often use deeps throughout but they are bloody heavy.
 
We run our nationals on brood box through out with no shallows for supers,
I'm on 12x14 just now but I'm thinking of moving towards Standard Nationals using only one size of box throughout the hive - as you describe. My extractor takes 8 inch deep frames radially, so there's no obstacle there. I heard Kristen Traynor talk about this (single size boxes in hives) at the National Honey Show in October, and more recently, Murray McGregor.
 
Thank you, they are all new queens from last year so not sure yet if they are swarmy, hopefully not. Two are bought buckfast and the otherv two are queens the bees raised so fingers crossed
Puzzled. You indicate in the left-hand column on this page that you have only two hives but four queens? Special bees?
 
Puzzled. You indicate in the left-hand column on this page that you have only two hives but four queens? Special bees?
Started with two hives originally had to do a split then caught one of our swarms hence thr four hives.
 
I remember Hivemaker referring to 14x12 as "an abomnination" :ROFLMAO:. I started off with them because it all made perfect sense to me...except I had never actually tried to build/handle the frames. I gave them away to my brother and went over to Langstroth which I much prefer - an expensive mistake but at the time I only had about 4 hives. For me double national would be better than single 14x12 but it's a personal preference.
 

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