Ivy Honey
- Thread starter bellabee
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itma
Queen Bee
Definitely not for the winter. (Lots of previous discussions on that one.)
ADDED - the reason for moving it, in spring, from under to over and at the same time fitting the QX is to clear any residual brood from those empty-of-honey frames -- if they have any brood -- so it can be loaded up purely with honey.
And unless I wanted to run with brood and a half (which surely you don't intend above the Commercial), I wouldn't be having a super on top through the winter ...
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Ely
Queen Bee
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2009
- Messages
- 2,657
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- Location
- Norfolk
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- 4
Ah ok. I know not to use excluder over winter as queen can be seperated. I was hoping the bees would have robbed most of the stores and taken down into the 16x10 so I could remove the super completey from above the crown board for the winter, so then I have just the 16x10 brood chamber with the robbed stores is this not the case? I will probably split the frames of the super for both hives. Was just wondering whether to use excluder in that situation. Or would the queen not really want to go through the feed hole? Cheers
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itma
Queen Bee
The Queen would only leave the hive with a swarm.
Setting up a "robbing" situation above a crownboard is about convincing the bees that the goodies are "outside" the hive, not inside - otherwise, why go to the trouble of shifting them? So, you have to convince them that the odd frame (maybe only one or two at a time) that you are giving them to clear is outside, not inside. Then they'll rob, while HMQ stays at home - no QX needed.
For effective robbing, some say to have an empty box between crown board and the frame(s) to be cleared - and some have even suggested a second crown board, so that the stuff to 'steal' definitely ain't in what the bees recognise as their home.
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