When to add second brood box

[BenLatimer]

Hi,

6 frame nuc added to national broad at beginning of july. Do I follow the 7/11 rule and add another broad or as it's not a huge amount of time until the end of the season just let them fill out the remaining frames in the one broad box and hopefully get them to overwinter happily in that?

Ben

 

[enrico]

I play it by ear, if they are running short of room then it is fairly obvious. There are no definites, cells be me vacant every day. If every one us full of something then I would add a brood or a half brood but for years I ran bees in a single brood box with no real problems.
E

 

[BenLatimer]

I play it by ear, if they are running short of room then it is fairly obvious. There are no definites, cells be me vacant every day. If every one us full of something then I would add a brood or a half brood but for years I ran bees in a single brood box with no real problems.
E

Thanks very much.. I'm really over thinking things at the moment..

 

[Millet]

From some prolific Queens i have seen if they lay the full seven brood frames with no stores in them frames just jam packed corner to corner with brood and egg's they will need another brood box.
My original non prolific dead Queen would just lay a oval shape brood pattern over around seven frames and the further from the middle the less brood and more stores would occur, that queen did not need another box of any kind she was happy in a standard deep brood box.

 

[Clemcook]

Depends on how prolific the Queen is, I got my nuc in mid April, and by end Of June she had filled two brood boxes, ive just done an artifical split and have two what seem to be healthy hives from my one nuc..

She needed lot of space, after having her a week I added another brood box, knowing what I know now I would of been more vigilant in keeping enough room in the hive, you don't want them to spit their dummy out and decide they want out as it's too cramped at the end of the season.