One brood or two in scotland

[Birnambeekeeper]

I have two colonies and 3 nucs (from recent splits) these have carnolian queens and one with a NZ queen - apparently need more space than one brood box. I have two sites one can be cold but is on an organic farm so plenty forage. I'm in two minds about a double brood national or convert over to the new lang poly hives
i live in perthshire

does the temperature and short summers up here make a difference in needing more than one brood?

 

[Poly Hive]

I would go for a double Nat. Bigger than the Lang and keeps you in one frame style.

I found that Aberdeenshire bees filled a poly Lang neatly.

Inabooters will need more. Though nothing wrong with double poly broods...

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

Well your summer daytime length certainly makes up for some part!

You will know how prolific your queens are and experience will follow.

A lot will depend on strength over-wintering and forage availability.

I might be uniting more colonies, for a good harvest, if I were living a lot further north.

They would then need at least a jumbo National box.

Poly hives would likely be cosier for over-wintering and may give them a head start in the spring - not a lot of good if there is no forage available though. But, Nationals can be made to be just as warm with prudent insulation techniques.

Not really answered your question, but a surplus of bees is what gathers the surplus of honey.

Regards, RAB

 

[Birnambeekeeper]

thanks for the help - i think i will be going for the polyhives and likely the paradise honey ones. Do these seem ok? So lang but this is mostly based on the quality of the hives rather than anything else. Double broods if its looks that way.

it was seriously cold here over the winter so the poly should hopefully help

Its a new site so i will just need to see how it goes!

thanks again

 

[Poly Hive]

You can get poly from Murry at Denrosa apiaries. Good quality poly that is. Also from Hamish at Struan Apiaries in Conon Bridge.

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

I have seen Rooftops' (forum member) poly hives, well sort of - the local BKA bought a pallet of them for new beeks and members and I saw one box put together in front of me. They looked good to me and are of sufficient density to thwart chewing by the bees (not like some, I am lead to believe). I shall be trying one shortly, I hope, when a suitable format for my frames is sorted.

It was much colder down here this last winter too - but not too cold for OMFs.

I also run a couple of Dartingtons and they over-wintered fine. The bees are isolated from the ends of the hive with insulated boards, I strap 50mm polystyrene sheet to the sides and fit an extra 25mm sheet over the coverboards (under the already insulated roof). Really cosy for them. My Nationals were well behind the Dartingtons with spring brooding, but that may also have something to do with different strains of bees and location as well.

You could ask Finman (forum member) about the cold and overwintering bees. His bees are in Finland.

Regards, RAB

 

[Birnambeekeeper]

i have managed to overwinter the bees at my site - which was snow covered for weeks it seemed. I do think the poly hives will work better though and thanks for all the advice.

I will look up Finman.

Currently after my formic acid treatment i have one hive on a double (cedar) national as an experiment and its doing really well (could be it was infested with varroa before) will be getting on the supers soon..