dfs
07-17-2006, 11:01 AM
I had ONE hive total.
It was a package I bought this spring.
They were growing like crazy and I did a split
June 17th, I split that split 2 weeks later.
I now have 2 new fat and I presume mated queens in
those hives.
I saw both queens, I see brood in one hive but I saw
none in the other, I figure I'll give her a week.
I use deeps for everything.
The new hives are in 1 deep each.
They both seem to contain about 25 Lbs of honey.
I started the out with some full frames.
The original hive is packed with bees.
So many it's hard to work them.
I pulled about 6-7 frames that contained brood
for the original split on the 17th.
I replaced them with some drawn and some undrawn
comb.
I put an excluder on top of the 2 deeps and added
a mostly empty and undrawn deep full of frames.
That box is now mostly (75%) drawn, filled and
50% capped.
The bottom 2 boxes are virtually full of either
brood or honey.
All the frames are with brood are mixed with
honey.
There are maybe 4 frames of just honey.
On one hand they seem to be somewhat overcrowded
in the bottom boxes, but any empty frames I
give them down there they fill with honey faster
than brood.
I propped the inner and california cover up.
there is enough space to exit but they still
don't use it as an entrance.
Would they be more inclined to use a 1" drilled hole?
I don't see a well defined brood chamber, she
lays in clusters, but aside from the outer 2
frames she lays anywhere and everywhere, there
isn't honey.
I'm trying to get them some room, but they fill
everything up so quickly...
On one hand I don't want her to run out of space
to lay eggs, but on the other, I don't think I
NEED any more bees.
I think the queen excluder is confining them a bit, but I know if I took it off, she'd have all
3 deeps full of brood.
Am I too worried about this?
Should I sort the frames from the 2 boxes and try
to consolidate the brood?
Yesterday, I pulled 4 frames of brood which held about 3 frames FULL of brood and after shaking
the bees off gave them to the new splits.
Good, bad???
I'm concerned about the 2 splits making enough
honey for the winter.
I probably have 150# of honey in the large hive.
I can get sugar in damaged bags for about $20.00/
100 Lbs.
Should I extract one box to empty it out or add
a new empty one?
What about feeding syrup late in the year to let
them store it?
Marc
It was a package I bought this spring.
They were growing like crazy and I did a split
June 17th, I split that split 2 weeks later.
I now have 2 new fat and I presume mated queens in
those hives.
I saw both queens, I see brood in one hive but I saw
none in the other, I figure I'll give her a week.
I use deeps for everything.
The new hives are in 1 deep each.
They both seem to contain about 25 Lbs of honey.
I started the out with some full frames.
The original hive is packed with bees.
So many it's hard to work them.
I pulled about 6-7 frames that contained brood
for the original split on the 17th.
I replaced them with some drawn and some undrawn
comb.
I put an excluder on top of the 2 deeps and added
a mostly empty and undrawn deep full of frames.
That box is now mostly (75%) drawn, filled and
50% capped.
The bottom 2 boxes are virtually full of either
brood or honey.
All the frames are with brood are mixed with
honey.
There are maybe 4 frames of just honey.
On one hand they seem to be somewhat overcrowded
in the bottom boxes, but any empty frames I
give them down there they fill with honey faster
than brood.
I propped the inner and california cover up.
there is enough space to exit but they still
don't use it as an entrance.
Would they be more inclined to use a 1" drilled hole?
I don't see a well defined brood chamber, she
lays in clusters, but aside from the outer 2
frames she lays anywhere and everywhere, there
isn't honey.
I'm trying to get them some room, but they fill
everything up so quickly...
On one hand I don't want her to run out of space
to lay eggs, but on the other, I don't think I
NEED any more bees.
I think the queen excluder is confining them a bit, but I know if I took it off, she'd have all
3 deeps full of brood.
Am I too worried about this?
Should I sort the frames from the 2 boxes and try
to consolidate the brood?
Yesterday, I pulled 4 frames of brood which held about 3 frames FULL of brood and after shaking
the bees off gave them to the new splits.
Good, bad???
I'm concerned about the 2 splits making enough
honey for the winter.
I probably have 150# of honey in the large hive.
I can get sugar in damaged bags for about $20.00/
100 Lbs.
Should I extract one box to empty it out or add
a new empty one?
What about feeding syrup late in the year to let
them store it?
Marc