ugcheleuce
Field Bee
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2013
- Messages
- 669
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Apeldoorn, Netherlands
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 7-10
Hello everyone
I'm aware of the "newspaper method" of merging colonies, whereby a newspaper is placed between two colonies that you want to merge.
However, a beekeeper recently mentioned a method of adding supers when you're not sure if the bees need a super, that involves a newspaper... and I've never heard of this method before.
Basically how it works is that if you suspect that the bees need more room, but you don't want to give them more room if they don't really want more room, then you add a super to your hive and put a newspaper under the super (above the colony). The idea is that if the bees want the room, they'll remove the newspaper. If they don't want the room, then they don't need to keep the extra box warm.
Have you encountered this methodology before? If not (or if so), do you think that it makes sense?
Thanks
Samuel
Added: The beekeeper also puts a queen excluder under the super, to prevent the queen from wandering into the empty box. The beekeeper lives in an area where the June night temperature drops to 5 degrees Celsius.
I'm aware of the "newspaper method" of merging colonies, whereby a newspaper is placed between two colonies that you want to merge.
However, a beekeeper recently mentioned a method of adding supers when you're not sure if the bees need a super, that involves a newspaper... and I've never heard of this method before.
Basically how it works is that if you suspect that the bees need more room, but you don't want to give them more room if they don't really want more room, then you add a super to your hive and put a newspaper under the super (above the colony). The idea is that if the bees want the room, they'll remove the newspaper. If they don't want the room, then they don't need to keep the extra box warm.
Have you encountered this methodology before? If not (or if so), do you think that it makes sense?
Thanks
Samuel
Added: The beekeeper also puts a queen excluder under the super, to prevent the queen from wandering into the empty box. The beekeeper lives in an area where the June night temperature drops to 5 degrees Celsius.
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