foundation

[Rock_Chick]

I've taken over looking after my brothers bees, its my 1st year on my own only done 1 year helping out, so in at the deep end so to speak.
A few of the hives were on double brood, I found the queen and but her in the bottom box then Qx on, just so I could sort out the frames with out disturbing the brood. Can I remove some of the frames and put foundation in the centre say 4 frames, then let queen back up ? then a super on top with stores or is it too early yet, with cold weather still on the way, I'm just on the edge of the pennines, so still nippy up here.

 

[Ian123]

If they are already on double brood you may not have needed to put the queen down depends if they are filling a single brood or not. You can put a few frames of foundation in but don’t split the brood with several frames. So how many frames are they filling with brood? I would suggest if there’s say 6 frames if BIAS then giving the queen the run of both boxes is a good idea. If any are on less you would be advised to keep brood and queen together...ian

 

[Rock_Chick]

If they are already on double brood you may not have needed to put the queen down depends if they are filling a single brood or not. You can put a few frames of foundation in but don’t split the brood with several fees frames. So how many frames are they filling with brood. I would suggest if there’s say 6 frames if BIAS then giving the queen the run of both boxes is a good idea.

When I went though them 2 weeks ago, I give them all new boxes and floors, I brought down the few frames of brood, to leave the top box with stores, a lot of the frames are old and quite clogged with pollen, not much space to lay anywhere, so that was my idea to replace 4 frames in the middle for them to draw and queen to lay in. Also in the brood boxes towards the ends are frames of honey, they look to be quite old frames, that have been used for winter stores that have never been used, what can I do with them ?

 

[Ian123]

Yes use the opportunity to remove manky frames and if you’ve put all the brood in the bottom box then all good. You can reserve and melt if you have the option/equipment or just burn.