Opinions about my new season resolution

[priono]

A few of my hives are double poly brood boxes. They seem like to be the strongest of all. I even didn't need to feed them throughout the winter. So I am thinking of changing all my hives to DBL poly bbs.

I think that the improved poly insulation and the double size helped to maintain a good colony over winter. And I also think that the poly bb are easy to heft and also perhaps e.g. with a snelgrove board easy to split.

What I see as contra is that I feel the polys won't last that long as wood as they easily chip but on the other hand need less maintenance than wood. Although I prefer wooden supers.

What are your thoughts about double poly bbs?

 

[Finman]

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I bought my first poly broods 1987, 27 years ago. They are still in usage.
Polybox is easy to repair with polyurethane (PUU) glue. But material has not been as good as in oldest boxes.

Polybox is quicker to build up than wooden because it is warm and colony can maintain larger brood ball (bigger radius). It means too, that when new bees start to emerge, you must be ready to enlarge the hive.

I have used wooden boxes as super.

When you add first super, swap the brood boxes. It is important to prevent swarming, because queen gets new laying room. Important too, that frames will be used evenly when their situation will be changed.

But it is surprice to, that upper box seems very crowded, but when I look to lower box, it is almost empty. Then you may add super and let the colony occupye lower box when they want.

 

[priono]

Hi finman. Thank you for that. Do you swap the bbs at the same time you add the super or do you wait until both boxes are full?

Why are they likely to swarm even if the lower box isn't full?

 

[Finman]

Hi finman. Thank you for that. Do you swap the bbs at the same time you add the super or do you wait until both boxes are full??

Yes, mostly I wait that boxes are full . Otherwise bees cannot occupye the super.

Why are they likely to swarm even if the lower box isn't full?

Swarming is bees natural habit to reproduce. Some races and strains are eager than others.

Swapping and new laying area makes bees to feel that they are ready yet. That works better with Italian bees, but not well wit hBlack bee and with Carniolas.

. But it depends on queen's ability to lay, how much they use douple brood for brood.
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[McNulty]

Finman, do you wait for the nights to warm up before you swap the brood boxes around or do you just go by the size of the brood area?

I wintered some hives on double lang deeps and a few hives have almost filled the top box with brood but they seem reluctant to cross the divide into the lower box. The nights haven't warmed up around here (2-3 degree C) till the last few days and I've been wary of putting an empty lang deep above brood.

 

[Finman]

Finman, do you wait for the nights to warm up before you swap the brood boxes around or do you just go by the size of the brood area?

I go by the sixe of colony. Brood area tells nothing.

When hives have 3 boxes, then I must add every week one or two new boxes. That happend on the first half of June.

colonies are different size and they grow with different speed.

Willow starts blooming first of May. There are good layers and poor layers, Those I can see after one month brooding.

 

[Finman]

The nights haven't warmed up around here (2-3 degree C) till the last few days and I've been wary of putting an empty lang deep above brood.

Put it under the brood box. Then it is safe.
When lower box is half full brood, swap 2 boxes.

 

[Bosleeu]

What are your thoughts about double poly bbs?

Love it. I have tried it all. Brood and half I found not too bad but not very flexible. 12x14 provides a lovely brood area but found it a pain to do manipulations with and do inspections on. I have a few different hive systems and designs and think it is time to standardise.

Double brood is great for wintering, very flexible and my plan is to move over to only those. Nothing is perfect but it seems to suit me.

 

[priono]

Bosleeu. What do you think about the box swap as finman described?

 

[itma]

I'm convinced that the bees do better in poly.
I'm happy with 14x12.

But I can see the attraction of the extra flexibility (and possibilities for playing games) that double brood would provide.
And that double 10-frame nationals (as some poly boxes are designed) would be at least 10% lighter (and so easier to work with) than using 11-framers, while still providing rather more brood space than even 14x12 ...

But for now, I'm happy to inspect single 11-frame brood boxes.

 

[Bosleeu]

Bosleeu. What do you think about the box swap as finman described?

I think it is a good idea. Most colonies seem to like working upwards, so by swapping you provide them with more brood space, as long as the box on top has some empty comb or at least some foundation for them to turn into brood space it should help with building up, and at least delay swarming a bit.

I tried one hive without an excluder last year aka Finman (on Langstroth medium boxes) and most of the time the bottom box was empty after a while. Once empty I moved it upwards in between brood boxes where it seemed to be layed up pretty fast each time. The colony grew to a monster from a shook swarm in May and made quite a bit of hobey, even after taking some nucs of.

I noticed no queencells all season, but that may have been down to the queen alone or a combination of the queen and rotating the bottom box upwards providing lots of space.