Working the Spring Brood box

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Poly Hive

Queen Bee
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
14,097
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402
Location
Scottish Borders
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
12 and 18 Nucs
This is for guidance only and if you are in ANY doubt at all then this is not for you yet.

If you are unsure how strong your colony is, leave them to it.

If you are unsure whether you know that they are struggling to cover the brood they have this is not for you yet.

The illustrations are a bit crude and Blue Peterish but the message is what counts so...

This first pic shows a colony with patches of brood on two of 11 frames. Blue denotes stores, orange denotes brood. There is nothing that can be done yet.

The next shows a week later with three frames and still nothing that can be done, still too weak yet.
The fact though that they have made progress is encouraging.

Now we see brood on four frames and we can start to assist the colony.

The combs are moved to one side and the amount of bruising is judiciously decided depending on how well covered the combs are. At this point less is better and if in ANY doubt leave alone for another week.

Best results come from placing bruised stores opposite a side of brood. Bees like brood across from brood.

Bruising means pushing the cappings into the stores to allow the bees access, but not pushing the hive tool clean through the comb.

The circle to the left on the outer frame denotes a drawing pin and the black hatching where the stores have been bruised. The pin is moved as the colony progresses so you know where the outer brood was on the last inspection to minimize moving combs to no purpose. You decide which is the constant side that you move the brood too, other wise there is going to be confusion. :)

The next shows the result a week later: yes still four frames but much larger brood nest.

Again the combs are bruised as per the hatching and again a week later the result is an increase in the brood nest. However this time there is an insertion in the broodnest.

If this is successful and there are now five reasonable frames of brood things can move a bit faster.


By now of course there is hatching brood every day and things are taking off.
It may well be necessary to be more gentle depending on prevailing weather. Just a bruise and turn can achieve a new frame of brood.

The ideal is that the bruising and turning results in not only the workings being successful but the bees go that bit further for you and in this case there is a small patch on the outer side of comb 7 (counting from right to left).

Again more bruising to encourage consumption of stores and laying up.

At this point a whole comb can be bruised and inserted, and truth be told in a strong hive when they are on 7-8 frames of well covered brood two can be profitably put in.

Please remember this refers to a thriving colony and if it fails to respond then leave them to it until they are stronger as you can seriously damage their prospects by getting it wrong.

I cannot stress this warning strongly enough, and I was in my 4th season before I felt confident enough to begin.

Be gentle and be sure they have the bees to cope. If in doubt leave alone for a week.

This works pretty much equally well in timber and poly and I practiced it in the rather harsher climate of Aberdeenshire which is some 600 miles north of the Channel coast.

It is a system that works with the bees and is successful on two fronts, one is expanding the brood nest and potentially bringing the swarming point closer which may be to your management advantage, and the 2nd is getting the bees to consume the stores from winter feeding.

The whole exercise is done without supers, that is on a single brood box with nothing else involved. I have no experience in trying it with double broods or one and a half systems so please do not ask as I do not know.

If there are nay sayers and no doubt there will be then you are entitled to your opinion.

I am happy to assist those who are positive.

PH
 
Good post PH, with a good description of how to,with pictures,....and including the advice/warnings for anyone who is unsure.
 
Hello Polyhive...I think I get this.. but is frame 7 (left to right) in the 6th picture in the right way round? or do I need to send myself to bed early with no supper?
 
It is to my eyes yes, the bees have moved on themselves.

They do you know.. and a very good sign it is too.

PH
 
O come on bees - I want to help you - ignore the weather and get active!!

Thanks PH - I now look forward to Spring!!
 
Thanks PH for taking the time to provide illustration and explanation.
Seems to make sense.
Can it be considered that the bruised store is used to raise brood and not moved elsewhere?
 
I think you will find what poly said was that the brusied stores are consumed to encourage laying up. (more space for the queen to lay)
 
Thanks PH, a really useful visual. There is something similar in Hooper as regards spreading, but he doesn't use bruising as part of the process. It looks very logical now i see it.

Admin- could this be stickied?
 
Just to record my thanks for explaining how and why something can be done better!
But I will heed the advice and resist implementation until I'm sure I'm not doing more harm than good... :)
 
When they are strong enough: and that is a value judgement.

I prefer them to have brood on four frames at least to start with but at that may decide to leave another week to see how they get on with out interfering. It is very much in the judges eye.

PH
 
PH - when you say brood on 4 frames can you elucidate a little regarding amount? obviously a rounders ball is very different to a rugby ball but may still occupy 4 frames (just!).
 
or for the non sport lovers:

a grapefruit is different to a honeydew melon. and i'd imagine you'd prefer to see a decent sized squash.
 
If you look at the diagrams I have tried to illustrate the size of the amount of brood I am talking about.

Hopefully this season I can get either pictures or a series of videos to further this information.

PH
 
problem is PH both standard national and LS brood frames are shallow rectangles. is your illustration meant to be a view from above or end on? Not sure about others but i've always interpreted (perhaps wrongly) Hooper's and now your pics as being end on representations.

(obviously less on a problem for the squarer formats eg jumbos or 14x12; and dependent upon preference of the individual bee colony for rounder vs more elongated brood areas).
 
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