Hi there folks. I'm a 2nd year beek with all medium foundationless equipment. I made a split in early august by taking 5 frames (brood, empty comb, eggs, honey) from my hive and putting them into a 5 frame nuc. They raised a healthy laying queen and now have about 1.5-2 frames of honey/nectar and lots of larvae and capped brood.
Today I put them into a 10 frame box with 5 empty frames (no comb or anything). Was that wise or is it better to overwinter a smaller colony in a 5 frame box? I also plan to feed them starting tomorrow and wonder if I can give them 1:1 and get them to draw out some of those empty frames or if I should just stick to 2:1 so they can store for winter.
After I extract next weekend I will have plenty of frames with drawn comb to put into the hive to replace what's not drawn out. Please let me know if I've done anything stupid or if you have any advise for me going forward. Thanks in advance for the help!
-Bill
Today I put them into a 10 frame box with 5 empty frames (no comb or anything). Was that wise or is it better to overwinter a smaller colony in a 5 frame box? I also plan to feed them starting tomorrow and wonder if I can give them 1:1 and get them to draw out some of those empty frames or if I should just stick to 2:1 so they can store for winter.
After I extract next weekend I will have plenty of frames with drawn comb to put into the hive to replace what's not drawn out. Please let me know if I've done anything stupid or if you have any advise for me going forward. Thanks in advance for the help!
-Bill