Shifting comb use: Brood to honey?

[johndl]

I've got my hives in a deep and two mediums. The top mediums were both freshly drawn this past year and used for honey. However, They've now filled these, and there's open space down below. I expect by Feb they're going to be living in the top super, and the queens are going to be laying in there as well. Will this preclude my reusing these as honey boxes this coming year, once the brood is out?

[Kurt Bower]

To answer simply...It depends!

Honey supers are often used as brood chambers but you will find that the reverse is not often done. The reasons being is that once you have used chemicals in treating for mites and diseases it is unacceptable to reuse them for honey purposes. It is important to take every precaution to keep your honey from being tainted!
Just because a queen lays eggs in your drawn comb does not in it of itself make them unusable for honey. Just make sure the comb hasnt been exposed to any chemicals.

Kurt

[greenbeekeeping]

Also brood combs tend to darken your honey!!

[Ian]

I suggest the use of a queen excluder. It will keep your brood nest down where it belongs and your honey up where it belongs. It will allow you to treat your hives without worry of contaminating your honey comb and will make your seasonal work easier and more pleasureable.
I do not buy the arguements on unlimited brood nest. I feel the queen has more than enough space to lay in two deeps to raise and maintain a stronge and productive colony. The excluder will make sure your equipment is fully utilized.

Ian

[Dave W]

Greetings . . .

If I may, I would like to add two simular questions:

1) How effective is Kelley's 7/11 foundation in discouraging egg-laying?
2) How necessary is "dark" comb in the top chambers? I have read queens wont lay in new, white combs, or even dark combs, if the latter are solid w/ capped honey (92H&HBp834).

------------------
Dave W . . .

A NewBEE with 1 hive.
First package installed
April, 2003.

[Ian]

>>How necessary is "dark" comb in the top chambers? I have read queens wont lay in new, white combs, or even dark combs, if the latter are solid w/ capped honey

They say that the queen prefers darker comb, but when I draw new foundation in my brood chambers, the queen fills them with eggs as soon as the cell are drawn

Ian

[johndl]

Ian suggests use of a queen excluder. I'd be happy to do that, but would that not risk trapping the queen below to freeze during the winter months?

[Kurt Bower]

johndl:
After the honey flow is over and you have removed your honey supers you can also remove your queen excluder. Never leave your excluder on through the winter for the very reason you expressed concern about.

Kurt

[Clayton]

I have never found the honey from brood combs to be darkened. I have noticed that these combs can contain a bit more pollen plugs. These can be a pain when filtering though. I think Kurt makes a good point about chemical tainted combs, which is something to keep in mind for those beekeepers using such chem's.

[BjornBee]

Alot of honey books (ABC-XYZ for one) makes reference of brood chamber honey being darker. The darkened wax will leech into the honey over time. And the hot knife with further this process.

I'm always happy with whatever color honey comes out of the extractor. I do find light/clear harder to produce in quantity. If using some scale to rate honey, say .1 to 9.9, then the brood wax honey may darken from 5.6 to.5.9 (hypothetical) This said, it may not matter to most. If 5.9 comes out, thats what you bottle.

The books are very detailed in producing the best, lightest, lowest humidity, etc. I've never stood and using a refractometer took scientific samples. But it does make sense to me. For high quality lightest possible honey, then use the lightest wax possible. Keeping supers for honey production with light wax is best. If it matters.

PS. After this past year I would be happy with more of any color honey.

[Ian]

>>The darkened wax will leech into the honey

Honey is not left in the honeysuper long enough for the dark comb to darken the honey.
The reason I limit brood comb in the honey supers is disease transfer problems,not honey quality concerns

Ian

[This message has been edited by Ian (edited November 11, 2003).]

[Daisy]

LOL, I'll second that BjornBee.

I'm not that picky, I'll be happy with whatever color honey I get. I just hope I get some next year. I hope I get alot of honey next year.

I wonder how much honey to expect from five to eight hives?

I have lots of plans for it...

[BjornBee]

Daisy,

You can figure that MOST years anywhere between 50 to 150 lbs. per hive. Some hives are above those numbers and some below. A queenless hive at the wrong time, bad weather, bees needing to also draw comb, splitting in the spring, location, etc, all have a drastic impact on the major flow. Your management skills also come into play.
Taking the good and the bad, if I can average 75 lbs per hive this year, I'll be happy.

[Michael Bush]

>1) How effective is Kelley's 7/11 foundation in discouraging egg-laying?
Kelley's description is accurate. They won't during a honey flow. But they will rework it if you leave it on over winter. Sometimes the queen will lay some drone in it.

>2) How necessary is "dark" comb in the top chambers? I have read queens wont lay in new, white combs, or even dark combs, if the latter are solid w/ capped honey

Queens will lay in any open cells that are adjacent to the brood area. They will travel all over the hive from time to time and if they don't have any drone comb in the brood area they will lay that no matter where they find it. They do seem to prefer darker comb to lay in but certainly are willing to lay in any open cells of appropriate size that are in the brood area.