OSB Hive owners

sahtlinurk · Nov 26, 2016

Ho did you do with your one size box system this year?

I converted some old standard nationals to Rose hive measures (hight 190 mm) and made some new ones out of 18mm plywood.

Started with three swarms. 1 of them had two boxes and two had one box at the start. The biggest swarm ended up in 4 boxes total and produced one full and nicely capped box of honey. The frames do fit in my standard 9 frame radial extractor. Two smaller colonies had both three boxes at the end and i had maybe a couple of frames of honey off each.

as i started only late spring early summer 2016 i didn't have swarming issues and only had to add boxes to keep them busy. Didn't use queen excluder. When i had to give a new box with foundation i placed it underneath and they did build it up as they needed. Not much hassle in the middle of the season but when preparing for honey harvest a lot of switching of honey frames from lower boxes to top ones for capping was necessary. At the end had a nice full box of honey at the top with very little brood and all the brood in lower boxes. Interesting fact is that all that honey was mainly from lime, must have been the forage this hive was concentrating at the time.

Now running OSB side by side with Nationals i would say, with my one season of experience, i found that with OSB hive it is easier to avoid brood nest congestion compared to Nationals ( i am running 14x12 bb ). Many of my 14x12 had this problem, even tough having plenty of super space i ended up queen running out of laying space

I will probably have much more insight to the difference between managing these two hive types next year when its going to be all full on from the beginning. Also got to order the Rowse book for winter reading as not much information out there for OSB system.

cheers,
Lauri

For want of a better word · Nov 26, 2016

Lauri ... I have acquired 10 colonies of Cornish black bees* in Rose hives overwintering on 2 boxes ( = brood + 1/2 Std National ) which will suit them just fine.
Previous keeper had a bumper harvest by "working" the frames.... looking forward to next season... fortunately my Chinese 9 frame radial will take the Rose frames... just!
The Thrones one is too small, only just taking a standard National super.
What advantage do you think the bees had by putting a box of drawn foundation under the main brood containing box.

Went up to the "Meadow" apiary just now... the Black bees are flying and bringing in a very dark umber pollen??? Gorse???
NZ Italians just popping out for a quick dump!

* Morphometry ... very negative discoidal shift... awaiting DNA ( and mtDNA) to see where they fit in with our other Cornish Native honey bees

Yeghes da

Tim.S · Nov 26, 2016

My second year with one size boxes - national brood size - and I am very happy with it. You don't want to go beyond 6 boxes high unless you have a forklift though!

sahtlinurk · Nov 27, 2016

the reason i gave the new box under the main brood was mainly to do with the weather we had at the time. giving it on top or between in my mind would have cooled the nest down too much but giving it underneath gave them an option when to start drawing it out with out the pressure of having to fill the empty space on top or between.For one hive it took almost a week before they started, another one was at it after couple of days.It doesn't really matter as long as they have the space to expand.And as soon they are drawing it another box can be inserted underneath. in one moment the colony has probably grown in size enough so the boxes can be given on top for honey or between for brood when needed. Available forage also plays a role.Thats my spring expansion plan for OSB.

Tim. S do you follow the Rowse book or have you got your own management system going on?

Cheers,
Lauri

domino · Nov 27, 2016

Tim.S said:
My second year with one size boxes - national brood size - and I am very happy with it. You don't want to go beyond 6 boxes high unless you have a forklift though!

I do it with nationals and ended up mixing nationals and supers, didn't seem to make a huge difference. I now get them to three nationals and then start adding supers, with no QE they make the nest as big as they like.

Tim.S · Nov 28, 2016

It isn't beekeeping by any named method as I have not read Tim Rowe's book, it's just common sense in giving the bees what they need when they need it. Boxes under early in the year so the brood is kept higher where it is warmer, later on when the temps go up I can put them on top or split the brood nest if that is your wish. The advantage of one size box/frame is when it comes to housekeeping and swapping them around to my or the bees advantage. The disadvantage is when you need to find the queen for a/s. I usually have a good idea where to start looking and 9 times out of 10 find her quickly, otherwise it can be fun! No or very little smoke seems to be the answer and then she will nearly always be around the eggs.
It's not for everyone as the hives can get quite big but in beekeeping as life one size does not fit all!