madame L'abeille

[castanea]

Hi I am new to beekeeping i bought a nuc on the 4th june, the bees have filled 10 frames and the hive is at bursting point. I have a dadant 10 frame hive. I am so confused can someone please advise me on the following question.I
1. Do I add another brood box or add honey supers ? We live in the south of france it is 34c and thgirls are still bringing in pollen. The swarm time here is in april i am worried for the welfare of the bees.

Thanks

 

[Arfermo]

Both I suggest - with a queen excluder between the brood boxes and the honey super and with the new BB below the existing one. First though, if you are in the mood, clip and mark the queen so she can't fly off with about half the crop and the flying bees should they ever be in swarm mode. If they are crowded you really ought also to have a look through all the frames to make sure they are not creating queen cells. If they are knock them all down and keep checking at not more than 7 day intervals.

 

[castanea]

Thanks for you prompt reply, i will be checking the hive today.I was going to add another brood box but when they said supers only i got really confused. If you like i can keep yu up to date?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

When you say filled ten frames - with what? you need to differentiate between brood and stores - if it's mostly honey then you need to put a super on so they can store it there and leave room in the brood box for the queen to lay. If it's all brood (which I very much doubt) then you need more brood space.
A Dadant hive is a big space for a nuc of bees to fill in a month so don't take advice on scanty information. It sounds like they may need more space but I'd venture supers rather than double Dadant brood. Inspect and report back as to how much brood is there (how many frames of brood - how full are the frames with brood) and how much honey stores are in there then people will be better equipped to advise you

 

[Anduril]

Due to the size of a Dadant hive, I would advise not to add another brood chamber it is OTT. As well as back breaking work, if the brood chamber was full of honey it would weigh around 70lb and is a two person job. I would add supers instead, each one will hold over 40 lbs of honey

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

t's one hell of a queen that can lay up a Dadant in a month (maybe one of these mythical queens that lays an incredible amount of eggs per day then takes a week's rest now and again!!) if that's the case, breed off her and sell her daughters!

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Hello Castenea

Hi there - I see you are in the south of France - as am I, and I am also new to beekeeping this season. I wouldn't be good as a mentor (being new myself), but perhaps we can share experience, because, as you have pointed out the seasons and weather are slightly different here

I am in the Haute Garonne. (Near Luchon) whereabouts are you?

 

[castanea]

HI
Thanks for taking the time to drop me a line. I am in Saint Remy de Provence (BDR).
Yes it would be nice to keep in touch.

 

[castanea]

Hi
Firstly i would like to thank you for taking the time to reply, yes i did take your advice.
On checking the hive, Yes you were RIGHT!! (You know your stuff). There was one side of the frame not touched. Now the good news, there is frames of dark brown capped brood cells also frames with honey in the top right & left corners. I tried to find the queen no luck.I had to quickly close the hive as I got a surprise visit.I put the excluder on then the supers and the entrance reducer (we have a lot of Hornets ). Any more info is gladly received. Thanks.

 

[ail901]

Do be over confident re swarm time, I have recovered two swarms in the last 10 days

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

There are ahem other ways of dealing with swarm cells than as suggested above. Have a look at the WBKA leafket " there are swarm cells in my hive".

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

There are ahem other ways of dealing with swarm cells than as suggested above. .

Was there any mention of swarm cells anywhere in this thread? the OP was concerned if there was enough room for the colony that was only a nuc a month ago - apart from one ill thought out reply all others just apprasied the situation and gave reassurances, although i admit it's always handy to have the WBKA leaflet for future reference.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Was there any mention of swarm cells anywhere in this thread? the OP was concerned if there was enough room for the colony that was only a nuc a month ago - apart from one ill thought out reply all others just apprasied the situation and gave reassurances, although i admit it's always handy to have the WBKA leaflet for future reference.

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