Which Type of Bees

[B+.]

Good question. Never thought where they gone

 

[bjosephd]

I do not quite see. I do not use excluders and I expand hives as soon as new bees emerge.



I join hives before yield, if they are not big enough. Productive hive must have 6-8 langstroth boxes. 4 box hive is not productive...

Finny, are your 6-8 Lang brood box colonies 8frame or 10frame?

Bjd




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[Finman]

Finny, are your 6-8 Lang brood box colonies 8frame or Pro

10 frame boxes.
I use mediums as well, but I tell them equal to langstroths.

Smaller hives would be nice to nurse , but they have limited space to store nectar. One capped box needs 2 nectar boxes. 2 capped boxes must be extracted to give nectar space.

Then I change the Queen every year. Most second year queens are not good layers. Even good ones drop to average level.
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But better to nurse 2 weak hives than one big and mad. Just join the two weak ones.

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[Finman]

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If I have 2 boxes brood at the end of May, those brood will forage yield in July.
June brood will work as homebees. They handle nectar and cap the honey.
They are as well needed. Otherwise foragers must participate to homeworks, and that is minus from foraging.

As it has been said: 3 weeks brood, 3 weeks as home bees, 3 weeks as foragers and then dead.

 

[bjosephd]

So you use 8 mediums ? or 8 deeps ?

8 mediums = >130cm height

8 deeps = >190cm

(above!) Head height deep lang bb of honey sounds scary heavy/awkward.


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[B+.]

But better to nurse 2 weak hives than one big and mad. Just join the two weak ones.

If this is how you make those 150Kg yields Finman, I'd have to say its not a fair comparison. The yield must be from the colonies own production and not from tricks like this

 

[Beefriendly]

The yield must be from the colonies own production and not from tricks like this

Only if you are assessing the colonies queen for future breeding purposes.
Not something that Finman is doing.

 

[bjosephd]

Only if you are assessing the colonies queen for future breeding purposes.

Not something that Finman is doing.

I think he means it's a bit rich to judge a colleague's colonies for only producing 50kg when yours produces 150kg when the reality might be that you've just piled/combined 3 hives on top of each other.


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[Finman]

8 deeps = >190cm

(above!) Head height deep lang bb of honey sounds ... Pro

IT is . Difficult to put back full boxes.

 

[bjosephd]

IT is . Difficult to put back full boxes.

I bet! Lots of bee squishing I imagine.


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[B+.]

I think he means it's a bit rich to judge a colleague's colonies for only producing 50kg when yours produces 150kg when the reality might be that you've just piled/combined 3 hives on top of each other.

Exactly. It must be a fair comparison of the colonies own performance. If you do something that alters this, then you are only fooling yourself.

 

[chrisb]

Good question. Never thought where they gone

 

[chrisb]

So you use 8 mediums ? or 8 deeps ?

8 mediums = >130cm height

8 deeps = >190cm

(above!) Head height deep lang bb of honey sounds scary heavy/awkward.


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you dont know he is 8 foot tall

 

[chrisb]

I bet! Lots of bee squishing I imagine.


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the bees are given jack Daniels this makes them equipped to resist squishing

 

[wightbees]

If colony (1) makes 50lb and colony (2) makes 50 lb , combining the two together and removing 1 Queen and possibly open Brood I would expect the colony to make over 100 +

 

[B+.]

If colony (1) makes 50lb and colony (2) makes 50 lb , combining the two together and removing 1 Queen and possibly open Brood I would expect the colony to make over 100 +

That is not how colony assessment works though. It might give you a nice high number to crow about, but, it's not an accurate reflection of how a queen and her own colony did in a given location.

 

[Finman]

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But 150 kg yield needs 150 kg pastures. You must find them yourself.


IT does not come only if you carry 10 box tower to the corner of the field.
For example in maximum rape field gives 60 kg honey, and some year it gives nothing.


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[wightbees]

I agree but if it's honey you want then I stand by statement but if Queen assesment then you are right

 

[Finman]

If colony (1) makes 50lb and colony (2) makes 50 lb , combining the two together and removing 1 Queen and possibly open Brood I would expect the colony to make over 100 +

In fact it gives 150 lb, because after joining it has only one laying queen and its brood.
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[wightbees]

Yes that's exactly what I'm saying, less mouths to feed basically.