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Running singles

3K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  JohnK and Sheri 
#1 ·
Just wondering how many of you out there run singles? Most of my hives are 1 1/2 story right now.

Matt
 
#3 ·
Ran into a guy from Canada a couple years ago who runs 5000 hives - all singles - and swears by it. he says a large number of Canadians run bees in singles and more are changing every year. I guess bees jump right through a queen excluder with only one box beneath. Same honey, less equipment. just pump 'em full of syrup in the fall (he feeds 10 gallons per hive in the open), wrap 'em and you're good to go for wintner. I asked about swarming problems in the spring and they just shake bees off to make packages to prevent mass swarming. It was very interesting.

I tried it the following spring on about 40 hives. Worked great. Later that summer I let them fill up 2 boxes to match the rest of my outfit. It'd probably work here too, year around, if one was so inclined.
 
#4 ·
singles

I run singles for honey production, because I want to produce honey. Like everything we do their is a trade off. With singles you need to be ready to feed right after pulling the honey off, 3 days max for internal feeders or you can barrel feed depending on weather. I find that the bees put all the honey above the excluder and will have 6 to 9 frames of brood and a lot of bees that time of year.

Larry
 
#5 ·
We thought about running singles just cuz you can get so many more on the truck but decided there was not enough leeway bees vs feed, unless one is able to babysit them all winter. There just seems like too fine a line between having room for brood and starvation. We send most out in a story and a half now and it works fine.
Sheri
 
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