Hi all,
I conducted my first full check on my two colonies and both are doing well after their first winter. Indeed, one of them is almost full. Both colonies are in national hives. My question for the forum is what to do about giving them more room? I want to use the demaree method for swarm prevention, which requires two brood boxes, but each hive currently only has one box, and I have no spare drawn frames. Is it too early to add a second brood box with undrawn frames, or will this be ok? And is there a good way to make this work, eg should I move some the drawn frames up and replace with undrawn frames, or just put some, say 3 or 4 new frames in the second box? I’m a little south of London and the weather seems ok, but is there a risk of damaging the colony by putting a second mostly empty box on top? Finally, if it is too soon to add a new brood box, should I add a super? The bees inane colony are quite crowded and I don’t want to lose them in a swarm, so doing nothing doesn’t feel like an option.
Any suggestions or advice very welcome!
Newbee
I conducted my first full check on my two colonies and both are doing well after their first winter. Indeed, one of them is almost full. Both colonies are in national hives. My question for the forum is what to do about giving them more room? I want to use the demaree method for swarm prevention, which requires two brood boxes, but each hive currently only has one box, and I have no spare drawn frames. Is it too early to add a second brood box with undrawn frames, or will this be ok? And is there a good way to make this work, eg should I move some the drawn frames up and replace with undrawn frames, or just put some, say 3 or 4 new frames in the second box? I’m a little south of London and the weather seems ok, but is there a risk of damaging the colony by putting a second mostly empty box on top? Finally, if it is too soon to add a new brood box, should I add a super? The bees inane colony are quite crowded and I don’t want to lose them in a swarm, so doing nothing doesn’t feel like an option.
Any suggestions or advice very welcome!
Newbee