what next?

[Ammerbee]

I know have 2 brood boxes on my hive (following earlier advice) half full of frames (each one) the queen excluder is on, the queen is in the upper brood box - what do I do next please?

 

[Nige.Coll]

Bailey ?

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[linoleum bonypart]

Put all the frames in one box ditch the qe when they have 8 frames of brood put on a super or brood

 

[yeogi75]

hi, are you saying you have five frames in the top box ,queen excluder then five frames in the bottom box, more detail please

 

[sherwood]

I know have 2 brood boxes on my hive (following earlier advice) half full of frames (each one) the queen excluder is on, the queen is in the upper brood box - what do I do next please?

One presumes that you are undertaking a Bailey exchange the purpose of which is to provide with the Queen with fresh clean wax in which to lay. This means that you will have fresh wax together with the queen in one box I would recommend the bottom box myself whilst in the other you are going to have frames with brood at various stages of development. This means that if the queen has laid in the frames above these frames will have to be in the hive for upto 23days at the most ie a fertilised egg ( a worker bee) will take 21 days whilst a drone an unfertilised egg will take 23 to hatch. These frames can then be removed at this stage but dont forget that as well as brood they may contain stores of both nector and polleb and maybe needed by the colony so be sparing with their removal ie look and see what the have stored in the new foundation during those 21/23 days.
It is not at all uncommon to feed bees to whom you have given fresh foundation I personally dont usually but when I do I give a mixture of 2 parts water to one part sugar ie 1/2lb sugar to a pint of water.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Ok bit lacking in info....

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Maybe he's been listening to that numpty on the BBKA FB page on how to bring a nuc on - so daft that in the end even they had enough and banned him!!

 

[birdsandbees]

Maybe he's been listening to that numpty on the BBKA FB page on how to bring a nuc on - so daft that in the end even they had enough and banned him!!

Oh, I must have missed that one!
there is another lurking around that makes my pee boil that seems to be getting added to more groups lately, apparently refused membership of his local association, but I doubt it was him.

 

[pargyle]

I know have 2 brood boxes on my hive (following earlier advice) half full of frames (each one) the queen excluder is on, the queen is in the upper brood box - what do I do next please?

Where on earth did you get this 'earlier' advice ?

Have you just got the two boxes half full of frames and nothing else in there ?

And what's with the queen excluder ? Where is it ? and why ?

 

[Ammerbee]

what next

I was told I had too few bees and that they didn't have room to lay (lots of stores) - so I took store frames from the brood box and replaced them with foundation frames...I then put the same number of frames in another brood box (as advised) and placed them on the top and fed syrup

a week later I saw the queen had moved up to the top box and was laying there so I put the excluder on (again as advised)

now I have a lot more brood and bees

 

[pargyle]

I was told I had too few bees and that they didn't have room to lay (lots of stores) - so I took store frames from the brood box and replaced them with foundation frames...I then put the same number of frames in another brood box (as advised) and placed them on the top and fed syrup

a week later I saw the queen had moved up to the top box and was laying there so I put the excluder on (again as advised)

now I have a lot more brood and bees

So you have now trapped your queen in the top box in frames of foundation and loads of empty space either side of the frames ? And you are feeding them with syrup to try and get them to draw out the foundation ?

You need to consolidate your colony into a single box - if you have 8 frames (both sides) of brood then ... and only then ... should you consider adding space. You haven't mentioned what size of box you are using ~ is it standard national or 14 x 12 ?

I'm still not sure what you are trying to achieve - when you are given advice you should ALWAYS seek an explanation about what the advice is intended to do rather than just blindly following it ... space in the hive is about balance - the queen needs space to lay, they need space for stores but with too few bees and too much space they can't cover the brood and it could chill - it's not that warm at times at present. The queen excluder does just that - excludes the queen and at present you appear to have the queen in the top box laying and brood in the bottom box ... with an excluder between them ?

Not an ideal situation as far as I can tell ...

 

[Ammerbee]

thanks for this

the point was that my original brood box was full with only a couple of frames of brood and I didn't have a lot of bees

the idea was to create more room - so I removed 5 frames of stores (as advised) and replaced with a couple of foundation - I have a national poly hive

I placed the same number of frames on top - so there was space in the hive behind the dummy boards

the queen has now laid a couple of frames of brood in the top box - looking at your instructions I should wait until she has laid in all these frames

they are very active now

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I was told I had too few bees and that they didn't have room to lay (lots of stores) - so I took store frames from the brood box and replaced them with foundation frames...I then put the same number of frames in another brood box (as advised) and placed them on the top and fed syrup

So there wasn't enough space because they had too much stores - so you shuffled things around and fed them.....more stores.
I think the initial steps should be:
1) Ignore the idiot that's been giving you advice from now on.
2) Get a decent mentor.
3) Join a local association and maybe enrol in a beginner's course.
4) Stop feeding
In the meantime - as Linoleum Bonaparte.
Consolidate frames into one box with the brood nest in the middle, bruise the cappings on one of the stores frames and put next to the brood cluster, put the foundation to each side of that (the cluster and bruised frame) then hope for the best

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oh, I must have missed that one!
there is another lurking around that makes my pee boil that seems to be getting added to more groups lately, apparently refused membership of his local association, but I doubt it was him.

He has his own group called the british beekeeping association. All lower case.

 

[Stoney147]

Any advice on doing a bailey exchange on a double brood hive??

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Any advice on doing a bailey exchange on a double brood hive??

Why do you feel the need to?

 

[Stoney147]

Because some of the frames are in poor condition and a few years old. I guess you just mean swap the old ones out few at a time???

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Because some of the frames are in poor condition and a few years old. I guess you just mean swap the old ones out few at a time???

That would be easier and much less pressure on the bees