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  • Under supering the brood box before winter

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #381  by Patrick
 22 Aug 2018, 23:06
It’s an interesting one philosophically Woodgatherer.

What may work in one season may not the next and what suits one location may be impossible just a short way away. My main apiary after end July is a nectar desert surrounded by loads of other known apiaries only fields apart.

Two miles away I have a single hive next to the river which feeds itself solid with Himalayan balsam and I have never winter fed in a decade nor needed to. Try that in my main apiary and the results would be severe. A farmer deciding to grow beans in a nearby field one year may mean a bonanza or a wheat crop next year zero.

I will do what I think is the best by my bees - and that should have in most years benefits for me as well. I don’t always get it right but I am increasingly in agreement with Nealh, with busy lives the KISS principle has a lot going for it.

So I would go as far as saying I try to be open minded about being open minded !!
 #8806  by juliabusybee
 09 Sep 2020, 22:49
I am under supering too but with a brood box placed under (not a super) which has honeyed brood frames .... can any one advise me ....should I put a queen excluder between the 2 brood boxes ??? My thinking is that the queen will be limited to her brood box and I can easily remove the bottom box in the spring.
Thx Julia
 #8807  by Patrick
 09 Sep 2020, 23:40
Hi Julia

No need for a QX, though the oft quoted risk of it causing queen abandonment by the cluster is not usually a problem. .

In the case of two brood chambers it is highly likely the brood nest will be in the upper box anyway by Spring and the lower box will have been emptied of all its stores and free if need. It is easy to remove, or swap around and put on top if you wish to run a double box system, if your queens are prolific enough to benefit.

Overwintering on double brood is an excellent way to do it and has many advantages for beekeeper and bees.

It is also a great way to overwinter drawn and bred in brood combs, especially with pollen or honey stores, keeping them safely from wax moth and mould.
 #8835  by AdamD
 11 Sep 2020, 10:28
My large colonies go through winter in double brood boxes with no queen excluder. If grotty dark frames are put towards the outside of the lower box, they have usualy been emptied by spring. The colony can be put in a single brood box in spring if desired.