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coatesg said:
Finally hived up overwintered nuc at my "temporary out-apiary" - found a couple of sealed QCs on only one frame with no previous signs of swarm prep, not even a queen cup. Q found and BIAS present.



Q is getting on a bit (she's blue - the nuc being made during an AS last year) so might be supercedure or swarm prep. Given they have 6 more frames of space to lay and draw after the hiving, and that they have fresh eggs, I tore down those 2 cells and will see whether they do actually supercede her here or not.
Click to expand...



I had exactly the same yesterday. one QC in a well laid up double brood colony. 8 frames BIAS plenty of stores and plenty of space. Maybe the girls think she needs help of a daughter with all that space I gave them. I did same as you. Tore the cell down and if they make another I will leave them to it. May have a 2 queen hive for the summer....: triple brood????


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colinc said:
I had exactly the same yesterday. one QC in a well laid up double brood colony. 8 frames BIAS plenty of stores and plenty of space. Maybe the girls think she needs help of a daughter with all that space I gave them. I did same as you. Tore the cell down and if they make another I will leave them to it. May have a 2 queen hive for the summer....: triple brood????
Click to expand...

I'll have to sort out my double brood hive as well in the next couple of weeks I reckon - that many frames with brood on may not fit well: could be brood, supers, snelgrove then double brood on top for a bit while those in the top emerge, before I can reduce it down to two boxes split by the snelgrove board...!
 
Just had a look through the window today.

Top of a double lang brood.

Not too shabby.

9 frames and and a dummy. Allows for much easier inspections.


998f36ae6c3a6651e9db206c8c1981d1.jpg
 
Dandelion. In two weeks those fields will be white.
Buttercups are another six weeks away and as you know the bees don't touch them
 
On my commute to work, I used to pass field after field after field of OSR in bloom at this time. This year, hardly any. The profit in it could have reduced at a guess?
 
Yesterday done a full shake down on all colonies, no brood abnormalities thankfully. All hives now are bouncing and some with 2 supers. Hived a nuc that was intended for any replacement losses so hive numbers have increased by one. No QCs yet but drone brood is plenty. Buckfast queen is now laying in the top half of a double 14x12 Swienty BB and most of the frames are drawn, one way of getting them to use all the winter stores left. Need to replace a queen in my other apiary as she has a slow build up this year and being a four year old queen she has done remarkably well. Association apiary inspection today ready for new Beekeeper's Sunday


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Eyeman said:
How come there's no wax on the tops of your frames? Have you just done a 'shook swarm'. All mine look like this:



View attachment 14274
Click to expand...



Interesting. Not sure.

I was actually annoyed about the (what now looks like a small amount) of brace comb between frames. (See below)

I wonder how your bee spaces (between frames and above frames) compared to mine through winter. Although often I had an eke for fondant. I did have a little extra comb on top early season, but nothing like yours.

This particular hive is very clean... they hardly propolize at all. I have another colony that glue their universe together big time.

(just looked again at your picture - looks like you have your frames in castellations spaced for supers ie a bigger gap for fat honey stores. To over-winter in a brood with that spacing I would suggest causes a big increase in comb in all directions. And mine is no shook swarm... those are the frames they over wintered on)

771a876684a6dd8ad7b99d7c93df1b3d.jpg
 
Last edited:
nantmoel said:
That is far too much bee space, they will build brace comb.
Click to expand...



Indeed. But i have a clear crown board, so I can see them do it. It tells me how they feel about their space. I have a look every couple of days to learn, and anyway I inspect properly weekly. As you can see, not much brace comb yet. They have space below for bow in their double brood. I'll look today and see what's occurring and let you know.
 
Bridge, Brace, and Burr comb are in part genetic and in part a function of hive design. The pictures of combs with extreme bridge and burr comb are an example of a hive that does not properly implement bee space combined with bees that love to build a bit of extra comb.

Here is a pic of a colony of bees that do not build much bridge or burr comb and are in a hive that uses correct bee space. This same colony is currently in the middle of a major flow and is filling supers with honey. I opened them 3 days ago and found 3 small areas of bridge comb between brood frames. There was no comb between the brood chamber and the super above.

sd.frames.2016.06.23.jpg
 
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