Moved to double brood today

[Bakerbee]

Hello all. First can i say a huge thankyou to Peter L and the beautiful queens i got from him last season. I have been extremely busy and not able to to do full inspection till today. Both buckfast hives are bursting. 2 full frames each end of stores and 8 full frames of bias with very little room. So im hoping ive done right by them by popping on another brood box below. I moved the frames round so both boxes are now. 1.Foundation. 2. Stores. 3. Bias. 4. Foundation. 5. Bias. 6. Bias. 7. Foundation. 8. Bias. 9. Stores. 10. Foundation. My thoughts were to have nest over both boxes to encourage them down. Foundation in between to encourage drawing and honey stores on all ends. I also gave them a light feed to help wax drawing. Does this sound alright? Please go easy on me im away in may for 3 weeks and want to make sure theyre sorted for a lack of inspection at the wrong time of year. I also popped on a super to each hive that are drawn and qe also.

 

[Bakerbee]

Forgot to say i have popped dummies in at each end too so i can run 10 frames in each brood box. If anyone was wondering going from 12 to 10 in each box.

 

[domino]

Welcome to the sunny uplands of double broad.

 

[Poly Hive]

I think putting in two foundation in the brood nest is a bit drastic for the time of year. You would possibly have been wiser to give them the 2nd BB full of foundation on the bottom, put two foundation either side of the nest and a light feed to help them draw it out.

PH

 

[Levitt53]

You would possibly have been wiser to give them the 2nd BB full of foundation on the bottom, put two foundation either side of the nest and a light feed to help them draw it out.

PH

That is exactly what I am planning to do today as I have two hives in the same position. Except I was not going to feed as the OSR is about to come out in full.

 

[Bakerbee]

Point taken gratefully PH, will they be ok if left as they are or would you recommend me altering configuration to your suggestion. There are so many bees, literally bursting, masses flying, orientating, just a huge amount daily, i realize now what bursting or a full healthy hive is !

 

[Poly Hive]

I would leave them alone myself. If they are as strong as you are saying they will cope.

PH

 

[Bakerbee]

Thanks PH. I thought they were strong last year, that wad clearly my ignorance, this year is something else entirely. I now understand when ive read people cautioning new beeks on what a strong hive actually is.