Too many brood boxes

[danthehat]

Hiya Folks,

I believe I may have succeeded in stopping the girls from swarming for now using a demaree method and swapping frames of brood from the old box with new frames of foundation from a new.

My setup is now a deep brood, queen excluded, half filled super and another deep brood on top containing an eclectic mix of brood, stores, pollen, probably some fondant and all the other things that puzzle me daily.

I would very much like the girls to move all the nice things from this brood box down below and clean up all the bad stuff so that i can take it away and give them a nice new super.

Anyone know a good way to get them to rob their own box?

Thanks

Dan

 

[YorkshireBees]

What version of a demaree did you use?

Is that the exact set-up you have now?

The reason I ask is that generally the method I use has a top board under the upper Brood box (BB) with a seperate entrance to allow drones to exit the upper BB and has a hole covered with queen excluder so that the drones do not enter the super(s) below.

Also in my experience it is best to have a minimum of 2 supers between the brood boxes to provide room and more importantly more separation between the queen and all the brood you have moved.

I would say that you can insert the new super above the queen excluder and below the half filled super.

To answer your question regarding the top BB, it's a feature of a Demaree that the top box will, over 3 weeks, empty of brood but be back filled with nectar / honey. AFAIK there is not a lot you can do to stop that happening however it's not a big problem as you can do many things with the frames once they are full.
1. Use them to feed any colony that needs extra stores (ie June Gap, starting a Nuc or Winter stores).
2. Swap them for capped frames of brood in the bottom box and the bees will move the stores into the supers to give the Queen more laying space.
+ more options

 

[danthehat]

Hi YorkshireBees,

Yes, that is the exact set-up. I followed the simplest method I could find of adding a new brood box to the original site with the queen on a couple of frames of brood, stores etc. Queen excluder on top. Super on top of that and then finally the old brood box on top of that (minus queen cells) with nurse bees and the remainder of the old frames of brood/stores etc.

Like both your ideas of saving the stores for the june gap and swaping with brood will try both for my learning. Thanks for the advice.

You made an interesting point about stopping the drones entering the supers with a QX. I was not aware that drones could not get through a QX. Does that mean that i trapped my drones in the old top brood box using my simple method???

Dan

 

[YorkshireBees]

Hi YorkshireBees,

Yes, that is the exact set-up. I followed the simplest method I could find of adding a new brood box to the original site with the queen on a couple of frames of brood, stores etc. Queen excluder on top. Super on top of that and then finally the old brood box on top of that (minus queen cells) with nurse bees and the remainder of the old frames of brood/stores etc.

Like both your ideas of saving the stores for the june gap and swaping with brood will try both for my learning. Thanks for the advice.

You made an interesting point about stopping the drones entering the supers with a QX. I was not aware that drones could not get through a QX. Does that mean that i trapped my drones in the old top brood box using my simple method???

Dan

In short yes.
The drones cannot get thru a QX and therefore are trapped in the top half of your hive.

 

[YorkshireBees]

It's easy to make a board from a crown board. See my attached photo.

Just need to cut an entrance on one side and cover the holes with cut up queen excluder.

Placing this board below the top BB and above your supers will prevent drones entering the supers and getting trapped by the lower QX.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Or like this

 

[danthehat]

Two fine examples, thanks for sharing. I will add to my ever increasing list of bits i need to get/make. When will it end....?

D

 

[BeeJayBee]

When will it end....?

Probably never!

 

[whoosling]

It's easy to make a board from a crown board. See my attached photo.

Just need to cut an entrance on one side and cover the holes with cut up queen excluder.

Placing this board below the top BB and above your supers will prevent drones entering the supers and getting trapped by the lower QX.

great pic