when to move to brood and a half?

[BKF Admin]

Skyhook,If it was me I would make a Nuc up from your colony and go into winter with two colonies.

That way if anything goes wrong overwinter you have many insurance options.

We have many threads from last winter from members with a single hive that have had queen problems,so early in the year the only option is to see them dwindle and die while with two colonies its easy to give the other one a boost with frames of eggs and brood,they can even give you a mated queen if a few drones are around.

 

[Skyhook]

Thanks Admin. Just in case you hadn't appreciated the full extent of my ignorance- A) when you talk about a nuc do you mean in a nuc box or starting another hive, and B) would what I understand to be a demaree, ie moving some brood into a 2nd box above the supers to raise queen cells, then transferring to new quarters, be the best way to go about it?

 

[Poly Hive]

At this late stage I would urge you to buy a queen and start a Nuc (baby colony) with her to get the best start.

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

If you want to go down the cheap route then put two plus frames(at least one must have eggs) in a nuc box with bees and let them make queen cells.

Shake bees once from the frames(into the old hive) first as that way 70% of the bees will fall off(these are the older foraging bees that will return to the old box if moved) this will leave you with young bees on the frame that have never foraged so have no idea were home is) shake extra young bees into the nuc box as you will still lose a few flyers to the old box over a couple of days,and you want enough left to cover the brood/queen cells so add a few extra young bees.

After a week knock off all but the best two cells and allow them to make their own queen.

Many beekeepers say that this method makes bad queens but in my experience from when I was starting out they are often just as good as a grafted queen and you save on the price of buying in.

Buying in a mated queen will put you infront by about 3 weeks but if you crack on and do it this weekend it should be ok although a month ago would of been a lot better.

I now need to go get my tin hat for telling you to allow bees to make their own queen cells.

No its not th best way to expand but sometimes you can throw the book back in the bookshelf and do things your own way.

 

[Juststarting]

Admin,
If you went down the route of buying in queen how would you go about splitting colony. Do you do the same but intoduce queen before they make queen cells?

 

[BKF Admin]

Yes knock any queen cells off the frames if you split before she arrives and introduce the queen in her cage she shipped in after removing the travel plug.

Its a personal thing if you leave the workers she shipped with in the cage or removed them.

 

[melon]

Thankyou Enzo, I have put the new super of brood back next door to the brood box, so brood and eggs are not seperated now. Did that 1 week of seperation cause the bees to start queen cells in the top of the hive?
I wasn't keen on making a nuc, as I haven't got a nuc box, and I've got too many hives really, which takes a bit of inspecting and too much honey to extract without an electric extractor!

 

[BKF Admin]

Melon do some extra cranking and treat yourself to an electric one next year.

 

[Baggyone]

Or can you have it converted to electric?

 

[ENZO]

you could always sell your extractor, they always sell well second hand, make up the odd nuc to sell plus your honey sales and then treat yourself to a electric 9 frame, One of my favorite bits of kit, my one just recently went bang and I have no second thought in replacing it just trying to find the one that suits me.

Just a thought

Enzo

 

[Poly Hive]

Getting back to the question.

When to go to brood and a half I would add the half at 9 frames of brood, and see how they get on.

It is getting late for major manoeuvres though, and I am in the midst of a major project and a bit worried for myself now.

The golden rule (or one of them) is have two colonies.

PH

 

[melon]

Yes folks, I will have to consider buying an electric extractor....will have to get some of the honey sold. Next thing I'll be asking for recommendations, Thankyou.

 

[louiseww]

Did you feed them to encourage them to stay?