Trying to get down to one brood box

[Polyanwood]

Please advise. I am on jumbo Langstroth. The frames won't go in the extractor.

In order to try to get more honey and to avoid doubling the number of hives every year I have combined colonies, so many of them are on double brood. I would like to overwinter on single brood, so put a QE between the BBs so the queens could not lay in the bottom BB. The bees then filled the bottom brood boxes with honey which they capped.

I want to remove the bottom boxes, so have put a crownboard between the 2 brood boxes so that they think the bottom box is not part of the colony and take the stores up into the supers. It is not working, so now I have restricted the holes in the crownboards a bit more so the gap is only about 2cm square to try to get them to do it.

Will this work? Other ideas?

Thanks,

Karin

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Karin,

Try putting the honey filled boxes above the brood box with a crown board with small hole in it, maybe having a gap between both boxes - a super box or eke between them. (As you would a wet super for cleaning). Hopefully they will draw the honey down to the brood box.

I assume if there was no flow, then the honey would be moved up to around the brood area.


Why not leave them on double brood?

 

[darrenperrett]

A jumbo Langstroth full of stores, you`ll probably need a fork lift !!!

I hadn`t realised how big they were untill i converted one to take 14x12

I went through my hives yesterady and any super frames that were not likely to get capped this week i stuck above another crown board hoping that the bees will bring it down to help finish the others off.

Darren.

 

[Polyanwood]

Thanks for advice.

I don't favour double brood over Winter.

I'm a Finman fan. No vain space.

 

[Polyanwood]

Had a think about the advice and tonight I've taken bold action at one apiary and done an experiment to see what works best.

Hive 1. put empty super on top of honey filled brood box then crownboard with hole restricted and then Bb with queen

Hive 2. left BB with queen at bottom, then restricted crownboard then empty super then BB whcih is full of honey but no brood.

Hive 3. Radical. Placed bb with honey on a new floor a few inches away facing old bb with queen in it. put a pipe between the two and then closed off the entrance of the honey box and restricted the entrance of the old box. Will they use the pipe as a honey superhighway and clear it out? Or will there be wild robbing? They can't think that the boxes are part of the same hive.

Which one will work best??

 

[oliver90owner]

Polyanwood,

I'm a Finman fan. No vain space.

Wrong context here. The only vain space should be the gap between the boxes. In this scenario the bees will move up if they want, thus removing the headroom and leaving more gap between the cluster and the OMF, or hive bottom.

Itis important to make sure there is only a beeway between the store frames ie full!

By the time the new year comes around, if they stay in the one level, there will be a large hole appearing around them anyway.

One reason I prefer the 14 x 12s, as they nicely overwinter on the one box.

Floor, box of stores, completely empty super or brood box, Q/E, brood box, empty super (with frames), crownboard, roof. Should work.

Regards, RAB

 

[Polyanwood]

Thanks Rab.
I meant no vain space over Winter, not now. I want to overwinter on only one box. To be honest these Jumbo Langstroths are heavy. I can't lift the full ones above belly button height on my own. Perhaps 14 x 12 would have been better.

I like your suggestion. I could do that at the other apiary and compare and contrast. At other apiary there is still a bit of a flow, so that makes it even harder to make them clear the honey out of the BBs I want to remove. All honey is capped in these extra BBs, so beespace should be correct.

I don't think I've understood why beespace being correct is critical though Rab?

 

[oliver90owner]

I don't think I've understood why beespace being correct is critical though

Frames will be full! Simple as that. Air space will be at the minimum.

Part-filled frames are not efficient as there is more space between.

A jumbo Langstroth should be more than enough for most colonies. I normaslly over-winter on a full 14 x 12 but if not full (say only ten frames), it will suffice if a divider is fitted, without problem.

Regards, RAB