Swarm control question

[ericbeaumont]

double brood box both with six frames each

In essence, one 12-frame brood box.

That is not a lot of laying space for a modern queen and I don't think you could prevent regular swarming. Sutty's suggestion of using supers as brood boxes would enable fluid expansion, but reckon on at least three or four supers for brood.

Splitting the current colony in two is the equivalent of asking a nuc to make a good queen, but for that, plenty of nurse bees would be needed to feed a queen larvae, and plenty of nurse bees means more than the brood and bees in a six-frame split.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I have a double brood box both with six frames each. I'm trying to keep them this way for my back but I can keep the full size super on top as they're manageable.

I'm sure I've seen a sort of sack barrow with a device to grip and lift upper boxes off a hive and wheel to one side for access to the lower box. Fine for flat hard ground but I guess it would be a pain on rough/soft ground. Tank tracks anyone?