Expanding colonies ready for additional box, and then the weather....

[JonnyPicklechin]

I'm in West London, current temperature is 14 deg C. I was about to add a second BB to 3 x singles that have brood in 7+ frames....All with (predominantly) drawn comb....I was going to add BB above the others and limit temperature risks to brood given its still not warm.

Like the rest of the UK, its going to get colder over the next fortnight (some reporting a drop below freezing at the weekend).....Should I:

a) leave them be.
b) add the second box
c) just add a super?

Its the conundrum between keeping the brood nest warm and necessary expansion. Last year, early spring was cold and dry and then 'orribly wet. I had lots of problems with swarms because I couldn't get into them until it was too late, which has me feeling that space is predominating factor...

Without asking everyone, my instinct is to add the super as it seems the compromise...But whenever was compromise a reasonable approach in this game?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'd go for a - or if you are really concerned about space and are set on going double brood, put it under the existing one. That way, no harm done

 

[Bakerbee]

My hives are the same. I'm in dorset. Some on 8 frames full of brood. I've decided to go brood and a half this year. As my hives are commercial size, when I go double brood, they never seem to use it properly and chuck too much honey in and not enough in the supers. So I'm trying to give them a little more dace for brood but not enough that they ignore supers and become honeybound. I aldo popped my first super on top as the **** is very nearly in full flower and we have masses round us this year. Fingers crossed.

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

I had a crack at brood and a half. Its sort of OK and I can see why Wally Shaw likes it...its a good way to manipulate brood being bordered up at the queen excluder. But as others have said, it did turn out to be a pain with swapping between hives and general controls over hive part inventory.

I took JB's suggestion and put a second standard BB under the active ones. I plan to move it up and over when the weather turns more consistently warm. We can compare notes on this thread for later if you like and see what occurred....

 

[polymath]

What I do to solve this issue is operate on double brood, 8 frames to a box - National standard. That equals brood and half space but all the same size frames. I use a block of correx wrapped in gaffa tape for the gap. So if bees fill brood over 13+ frames then i just take out corex and give more more foundation. But i find if running a single queen set up then 2 x 8 frames works well and the bees like it as more up and down than left to right and most honey gets stored in supers.

 

[polymath]

I'm in West London, current temperature is 14 deg C. I was about to add a second BB to 3 x singles that have brood in 7+ frames....All with (predominantly) drawn comb....I was going to add BB above the others and limit temperature risks to brood given its still not warm.

Like the rest of the UK, its going to get colder over the next fortnight (some reporting a drop below freezing at the weekend).....Should I:

a) leave them be.
b) add the second box
c) just add a super?

Its the conundrum between keeping the brood nest warm and necessary expansion. Last year, early spring was cold and dry and then 'orribly wet. I had lots of problems with swarms because I couldn't get into them until it was too late, which has me feeling that space is predominating factor...

Without asking everyone, my instinct is to add the super as it seems the compromise...But whenever was compromise a reasonable approach in this game?

I would add a second box at this time of year, they are starting to expand fast, if concerned just put a full brood box on top but put five or six dummy board in - 3 each side so they just have extra frames in the middle, then as they start to use the space you can add more frames.

 

[elainemary]

What I do to solve this issue is operate on double brood, 8 frames to a box - National standard. That equals brood and half space but all the same size frames. I use a block of correx wrapped in gaffa tape for the gap. So if bees fill brood over 13+ frames then i just take out corex and give more more foundation. But i find if running a single queen set up then 2 x 8 frames works well and the bees like it as more up and down than left to right and most honey gets stored in supers.

I did the same last year, I had some fat dummies made out of plywood that fills the gap. Worked well.

 

[Bakerbee]

I like that idea too polymath, will try brood n half this year and yours next year.