Russians and double deeps questions??

[Ncdude]

Hi all,

I have a second year Russian hive with two brood boxes, and they are doing great. But, the top brood box is packed with honey instead of brood so I am wondering if a second brood box is really needed. I know they need room to grow but couldn't I use supers and one brood box? The setup would be one brood box, queen excluder and two supers to start with so at least I could extract some of the honey instead of looing at it.

Thanks for the help,

Scott..

[alpha6]

You bet. It is also a way of standardizing your equipment to all mediums. Just make sure they have enough food to make it through the winter.

If you just want to pull honey, just put a super on top of the hive body full of honey. You don't need a queen excluder as the queen won't usually pass through a honey barrier. Plus, it will make it easier for the bees if you don't have an excluder in place. Once they draw out the super, pull it and add place a second super on the hive body then replace the first super on top of the now not drawn out super. (if using a top entrance just put the super on top). Once they draw that out and are filling it, pull the first super, extract it, then when the second super is full, pull the hive body, replace it with the now empty drawn out super that you just extracted and let them work that. Extract the hive honey and now you have two supers, one being filled with honey and drawn and the other fully drawn and waiting to be filled. Leave them those for the winter and you should be fine. Clear as mud right? ;)

[Ncdude]

Thanks I thought that I could get away with it and that the second deep was pretty much a waste for them. I could understand it if the queen was going to use it for brood but if not then it sure would be easier to go to a super or two.

Thanks,

Scott..