Equalising hives in spring

[B+.]

Beg on your knees pal!

I don't need to. Its all described here (https://coloss.org/standard-methods-for-rearing-and-selection-of-apis-mellifera-queens/#3.). You can accept it, or not. That's up to you, but, that's what we do.

 

[B+.]

That is your choice. And that does not mean, that when others manipulate apiarys' foraging power, they mask something. I would not get much honey, if I let the hives build up "naturally".

And I repeat, I do not load bad hives with good hives' brood frames. Who heck wouöd do that! . ...just "intellectual poking of true Englishman".

You may not see, or care, what the true character is. That is your choice.
I mean no offence, just that I am looking for something different.

 

[drex]

Swapping makes no sense. A hive has nurser bees which take care of brood. Colony needs its nursers, and small colony's nursers are too few. At least operation stops the build up of strong colony.

To strenghten a small colony during smarming time is too late.

One full frame of brood gives 3 frames of bees. That is often enought to rise a colony to one box.

If I take two or three brood frames from a strong hive, hive will be short of those nurser bees which speed up best hives' build up. 3 brood frames are a whole brood box of bees.

.

Forget where I learned it from. Think from Tom Seeley. Bees are good at equalizing duties of workforce. If they need more nurses then house bees will revert. If more foragers needed house bees are promoted early. I swap both hives and frames to equalise as situation dictates.

 

[Finman]

Forget where I learned it from. Think from Tom Seeley. Bees are good at equalizing duties of workforce. If they need more nurses then house bees will revert. If more foragers needed house bees are promoted early. I swap both hives and frames to equalise as situation dictates.

I do no mind about Tom Seeley.

Bees do not change mucj duties. At least they are in wrong role. Beekeepers' fairytales. I have seen myself, what they do.

 

[Finman]

.
Our summer is too short that bees have time to correct my wrong operations.


Few years ago I did a two box hive, whixh bees were from emerging brood combs. The queen was good.

The queen stopped laying, because foragers were too few to bring pollen to just emerged bees. I joined a swarm hive to that apparatus and a huge laying started.

 

[Eyeman]

Not at all.
I can see that your objective is to maximise your honey crop, and that's ok. If I was solely driven by honey yield, I might do the same.
My goals are different to yours, so, my methods are too. As a breeder, I test my stock to obtain consistent, comparable data. If I added/removed anything that would affect the colonies performance, I wouldn't get that. So, every colony is allowed to develop naturally. since they are control-mated, they are not only a reliable source of data on their own performance, but also, their full sisters.
I don't expect you to agree with my methods, but I do expect you to respect them.

Objective is to get strong colonies going into the spring nectar flow to maximise a honey crop. I then use those strong colonies as brood donors for queen rearing and lastly brood and bees donors for restocking nucs. It doesn't work well unless most colonies are strong from the start.

 

[Finman]

. It doesn't work well unless most colonies are strong from the start.

That's it. You must get all queens to work. Brood takes time, that egg will be a forager.

Last spring my colonies were equally small. No use to move brood. To join colonies at once would be a right act.

 

[Anduril]

Another method
https://youtu.be/YQQSVIACyrU