- Joined
- Feb 21, 2017
- Messages
- 1,081
- Reaction score
- 151
- Location
- Pensilva, East Cornwall
- Number of Hives
- None, ex-beekeeper
I have read several threads on here about not using a queen excluder but have been unable to ascertain exactly what happens if no QE is used and no moving of the supers takes place. Let's imagine that I have a hive that I do not touch all season, apart from adding supers on top of the last one, until I come to harvest honey, which I would normally do at the end of August. When I open the hive at the end of August, what am I likely to find? Brood all over the place? Honey nicely stored in the top supers? Brood at the top, honey at the bottom? I don't know.
I'm curious as I have a hive that consistently fails to provide quality honey (sometimes poor tasting, sometimes rock hard in the combs) which may be because it does not get as much sun as the other hives and I would like to experiment with no interference at all apart from hefting during the summer and the addition of supers as necessary. I suppose I am just wondering what a wild colony would do if it nested in a more or less box-shaped tree.
I'm curious as I have a hive that consistently fails to provide quality honey (sometimes poor tasting, sometimes rock hard in the combs) which may be because it does not get as much sun as the other hives and I would like to experiment with no interference at all apart from hefting during the summer and the addition of supers as necessary. I suppose I am just wondering what a wild colony would do if it nested in a more or less box-shaped tree.