Second year plan....please comment.

[Bennyjeep]

OK...our first year went great: 1 hive, no major issues, lots of honey. Created a nuc from that hive and both seem heavy and healthy heading into winter. Minor problem with SHB.

I have high hopes but being realistic also. The hives sit in our backyard and are not moved. Currently using the pierco plastic frames. Learned lots and enjoyed my time with the bees and having my wife and 3 sons (ages 6, 9, and 16) getting involved also.

So now we are currently planning for year number 2. We are going to expand to a total of 3 hives. My hive now has 2-10 frame deep brood chambers.

I am thinking about going to 8 frame boxes just for ease of lifting. We are also contemplating using all medium sized boxes for the brood chamber, which I imagine will be 3 boxes, and also using the medium boxes for supers.

It seems that there will be benefits to having all the same size frames for the supers and brood boxes since I will only have 3 hives. Am I assuming the wrong thing?

That is question 1.

Question 2 refers to the frames I am using. I would like to experiment with different types of frames. I am new to this but as of now, I believe that the bees are capable of knowing what is best for them and they should dictate the size of comb they build. I have read some of the contrast between small cell and such. I am just looking for additional information. Maybe some one can point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Jim

[berkshire bee]

Jim, Congratulations. Glad to hear you had such a good first year. I like the double deeps for brood and will probably stay with them but I have a lot of them and don't want to switch, and can still lift them without a problem. I'd say if you're thinking about switching, now would be the time to do it before you have a lot of equipment. You would have the advantage of all the same size boxes. For example if you have all mediums and want to start a few nucs, you could pull a few frames of saved honey from the freezer and wouldn't be mixing medium honey frames and deep brood frames. One thing I would recommend if you treat your hives is to mark frames used in the brood boxes so they don't get used in honey supers if they were exposed to chemical treatments.
I'll let someone chime in who has experience with small cells.

[Michael Bush]

>It seems that there will be benefits to having all the same size frames for the supers and brood boxes since I will only have 3 hives. Am I assuming the wrong thing?

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#uniformframesize

>Question 2 refers to the frames I am using. I would like to experiment with different types of frames. I am new to this but as of now, I believe that the bees are capable of knowing what is best for them and they should dictate the size of comb they build. I have read some of the contrast between small cell and such. I am just looking for additional information. Maybe some one can point me in the right direction.

If you want the bees to decide then use either starter strips in wooden frames or comb guides.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#foundationlessframes
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm

To get natural comb:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm

[riverrat]

OK...our first year went great: 1 hive, no major issues, lots of honey. Created a nuc from that hive and both seem heavy and healthy heading into winter. Minor problem with SHB.

I have high hopes but being realistic also. The hives sit in our backyard and are not moved. Currently using the pierco plastic frames. Learned lots and enjoyed my time with the bees and having my wife and 3 sons (ages 6, 9, and 16) getting involved also.

So now we are currently planning for year number 2. We are going to expand to a total of 3 hives. My hive now has 2-10 frame deep brood chambers.

I am thinking about going to 8 frame boxes just for ease of lifting. We are also contemplating using all medium sized boxes for the brood chamber, which I imagine will be 3 boxes, and also using the medium boxes for supers.

It seems that there will be benefits to having all the same size frames for the supers and brood boxes since I will only have 3 hives. Am I assuming the wrong thing?

That is question 1.

Question 2 refers to the frames I am using. I would like to experiment with different types of frames. I am new to this but as of now, I believe that the bees are capable of knowing what is best for them and they should dictate the size of comb they build. I have read some of the contrast between small cell and such. I am just looking for additional information. Maybe some one can point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Jim


First off you need to decide quickly what direction you are going to go so you dont waste you and the bees time and resources on equipment you wont end up using i myself run deeps for the brood chamber but some run all mediums for brood there are pro's and cons to both you will need to decide whats right for you go in that direction. It looks like you have a pretty good understanding of some of the differences. so making the decision shouldnt be hard

If you are wanting to experiment and let the bees decide what they want to build for comb I would go with foundationless frames and let them pull out there own comb your first frame or 2 will most likely be drone comb.

and for a little fun here " I will only have 3 hives am I assuming the wrong thing" history will say you are assuming the wrong thing we will ask you in couple of years if you still have only 3 hives remember beekeeping has an addictive side too it:D

[shawnwri]

I've started with full foundation sheets, but decided I'm frugal (or cheap) and going with starter strips. That way the bees decide what kind of comb they want and I get a lot more frames for the same amount of money

[Bennyjeep]

Thanks all for the comments. They do help a lot.

I really do not know too much about starter strips and I think I may try that and see how it goes.

Jim

[spunky]

use some plastic frames/foundations to keep your natural cell strait. I wasted 3 weeks of my June splits works, by putting in 10 frames of starter strips with no guides. I bought more deeps for my second year, I have a 50% / 50% split of hive bodies, deeps and mediums.

My first year went fairly well also, but I fed more than planned due to the 12 inch rain shortfall.

I am trying some all plastic foundation and a russian package for 08'

and yes I am still on budget