This is my first spring, 2nd season, and have been reading a lot over the winter. Later in the spring, rather than putting QE back in between brood and shallow super, is there merit in placing it above the super (in a brood box /shallow super setup) and placing a new shallow super (or 2?) on top? The colony has wintered well and seems to be growing in size already. Any views would be welcome.
Thanks
Roy
Roy, you have WBCs.
They have a distinctly small brood box - 10 frames vs 11 in a National (same frames).
If (as is likely) single brood doesn't give enough brood space, they will forever be wanting to swarm.
Brood-and-a-half is one response. Some go to double brood. Others go 14x12 (you can get 10-frame WBC 14x12's...) to get more brood space.
Personally, I think multi-brood is a pain. So I have gone 14x12 (national).
But some do like it. It provides the possibility of a quick "tipping" inspection for swarm-cells only... BUT... with WBC you'd still have to remove the lifts, and a fuller inspection is actually important to your learning what is going on in the colony.
Just as a remark in passing - a shallow box used as a brood isn't really a super.
But beyond terminology, as a small brood box, it should have small brood-type frames SN4s or SN5s. These are not a usual choice for honey supers!
You really
don't want to have castellations or those nasty push-on (plastic or metal) spacers in a
brood shallow.
The exactly correct spacing for brood frames is very important - regardless of whether they are deep or shallow.
