Unite went well, thinking about leaving double brood box over winter?

[CliffDale]

Didnt find the queens but saw plenty of eggs!

I have queen downstairs, Q excluder followed by another brood box on top. Top box is quite heavy with stores, (this was the box that was q.less for a long time and bees filled it up with stores).

I had a bad year with bees swarming this year. As part of swarm control, Im thinking about keeping 2 brood boxes on each hive. I think I can manage swarm control better by swapping frames around when needed to give the queen plenty of space.

I know the down side is loose honey in the stores. The up side is I may keep hold of the colony and have greater numbers collecting.



Could do with some advice on double box please.


Cliff

 

[RoofTops]

Go for it but take away the QX. My strongest colonies after last winter were on double Langstroth brood boxes. I'm going for a halfway house this year wintering some on double Medium Langstroth brood boxes as I think this will be big enough, as a Medium LS frame is about the same area as a National full depth frame. It will mean I will have a Jumbo Langstroth sized brood but without the big frames.

 

[CliffDale]

I thought it would be easier to find the queen if I kept her down stairs. Also reduce time when looking for those dreaded queen cells.

What is the advantage of letting the queen have a free reign of both boxes?
Cliff

 

[VEG]

The queen wont get left behind downstairs if the bees move up in cold weather

 

[djg]

I combined my two hives after finding a Queen dead outside the hive in November last year and left them on double brood to overwinter.

Depsite the ravages of last winter they came through just fine and I now have 3 hives (2 single Nationals, 1 Deep National) and a nuc and a 25lbs of honey from them.

However, I do not intend to combine this year since the colonies are strong, and I plan keep them on the single brood box formats to overwinter, unless another disaster occurs !

Good luck with your bees !

 

[margob99]

If you over winter with a double brood box (which I am mulling over) (National), do you just add the feed on top inside an empty super? Does that mean keeping an empty super, perhaps on top of a crownboard? Or will an eke do? Won't all of this make the space they need to keep warm, quite a large one?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

CliffDale.
Double Brood, no queen excluder. The bees can move around as they want. No worries about stores. perfect.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

margob99
A bit late to start thinking about a double brood chamber if you ahve not done so. Once the bees are fed (and they should be pretty full by now) then they should not need attending to until Spring on a double brood. The crown baord keeps 90% of the heat in. A laye of insulation can be added above it if you wish.

 

[oliver90owner]

Margob99,

Double brood box and more food?

There should be more than ample stores in a double brood arrangement.

I don't feed anything to my 14 x 12s until they are ready to brood in spring (or more like 'I want them to be more ready!').

A standard brood with a super should be more than enough; I found a brood was enough for the winter months but not necessarily enough for spring brooding. Also, if they start in the middle and move to one end, it can cause a big problem in a very cold spring (as in 'isolation' starvation).

A bit late to be deciding this now, for this year, I would have thought?

Regards, RAB

 

[margob99]

Well, I did a unite of two brood boxes 10 days ago, large feed went in yesterday. I guess it just looks like a large hive, when my first winter was just with one single brood box over an empty super which I filled with insulation (and food at regular intervals).