Is it time to add a third brood box?

[Mrs Shoot]

This is my 1st post....so please be gentle.

One of our hives is doing very well. It is a double brood box, wall to wall brood in both brood boxes, queen excluder in place, and two supers on top filling nicely, lots and lots of bees.

On our last inspection (Friday), we found a lot of play cells had been built, one was charged with royal jelly and egg in place, all on the bottom of the frames.

Thinking they may be running out of room and a third brood box may be a good option. Would this reduce them wanting to swarm, and keep them as one big strong colony?

 

[user 6228]

This is my 1st post....so please be gentle.

One of our hives is doing very well. It is a double brood box, wall to wall brood in both brood boxes, queen excluder in place, and two supers on top filling nicely, lots and lots of bees.

On our last inspection (Friday), we found a lot of play cells had been built, one was charged with royal jelly and egg in place, all on the bottom of the frames.

Thinking they may be running out of room and a third brood box may be a good option. Would this reduce them wanting to swarm, and keep them as one big strong colony?

A full nest is not the only swarming cue.
Afterall the raison d'etre of the colony is to swarm

 

[Walrus]

Sometimes you get supercedure cells on the bottom of frames but with the hive set up the way yours is, and the time of year being what it is, i would be betting on them having decided to swarm. There are various ways of dealing with this which keep the foragers together e.g. snelgrove board.

Some people would remove the queen cell(s) and add more space (drawn comb) overhead in the hope that they change their mind but IMO that is too risky at this time of year.

Good luck

 

[Duchy]

you need to do a split (or maybe two?). Take a frame with brood and one or two queen cells, and and a frame of food, and put them in a new hive.... Leave it for a week or two and see how they are doing..

 

[Mrs Shoot]

We also have a small hive (no 6) which is struggling and currently superseding.

Would it be an idea to place a piece of newspaper over the brood box on hive 6, add a brood box and place frames of brood, some bees and stores from the very strong hive (which is hive no 1) in to the brood box over 6? Would this be as good as a split? Hubby not keen on this idea, wants to keep hive no 1 as big as possible.

Sounds as though a third brood box not really a good idea.

Trying not to have a domestic over this lol.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What did you do with the charged QC? if you left it, they might well be on their way by now. if you knocked it down there could well be another one or more there and you should open up again before seven days is up to check.
IMHO the only real cure is A/S as soon as you find the next QC, queen and a frame of brood, the rest foundation at the original site, the rest somewhere else (don't bother with the switching sides mullarkey of a full Pagden)
The important thing with this colony is to take positive action before long otherwise your strong colony will be greatly weakened by a swarm.
As regards the weak hive, how weak is it? you could just ut a frame of sealed brood on the point of emerging into it (shaken free of any bees) to give them a little boost, this wouldn't weaken the double brood colony to any great extent anyway.

 

[Mrs Shoot]

What did you do with the charged QC? if you left it, they might well be on their way by now. if you knocked it down there could well be another one or more there and you should open up again before seven days is up to check.
IMHO the only real cure is A/S as soon as you find the next QC, queen and a frame of brood, the rest foundation at the original site, the rest somewhere else (don't bother with the switching sides mullarkey of a full Pagden)
The important thing with this colony is to take positive action before long otherwise your strong colony will be greatly weakened by a swarm.
As regards the weak hive, how weak is it? you could just ut a frame of sealed brood on the point of emerging into it (shaken free of any bees) to give them a little boost, this wouldn't weaken the double brood colony to any great extent anyway.

Yes he knocked down the QC.

Hive 6 has more bees in there than on Friday, we added a frame of brood two weeks ago, so they have emerged to bolster numbers. There were quite a few bees going in and out and they are collecting stores. They have got a small amount if brood in the hive that has died, I can only assume from not having enough bees to keep the whole area of brood warm. They have been clearing it out.

We decided to do something with today while the weather was nice. Suppose to be horrible tomorrow and didn't want to risk leaving them to long.
Found HM on the 1st frame we pulled out (what are the chances!!!) she looks great, big and chunky.
We decided to take 4 frames of brood out with bees and a two frames of stores, and place them in a brood box above hive 6 with paper in between. Found 3 charged QC's on 3 of the frames. Broke all the charged QC's down on these frames before putting them in the brood box on top of hive 6. There was a sealed QC in hive 6 on Friday, still sealed today so expecting her to make an entrance soon.
This should leave hive 1 stronger than if they swarmed, and should help hive 6 to get stronger quicker, and have a queen sooner than leaving a charged QC with just an egg in it.
Will inspect hive 1 again on Friday, as we didn't do a full inspection today, and there could well be some other QC's in there. Will have to wait and see.

 

[oliver90owner]

Knocking down queen cells can precipitate swarming in about four to five days. Not a good system of swarm control.

There could be emergency cells built in the unite. Beware.

 

[MartinL]

I'd have put the frame with the QCs into the weak colony.

If they're as strong as you say this early, then yes another box is required but NOT on top.


You need to split. Perhaps just 5 frames, (more of the QCs) into a nuke??

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Knocking down queen cells can precipitate swarming in about four to five days. Not a good system of swarm control.

Not even a system of swarm control IMHO - Commonly called head in the sand syndrome.

It's obvious that the red button has been pressed on hive 1 so expect to have to A/S on your next visit to a hive now depleted of six frames.