Maintaining a hole beside the brood nest - comb building for first year hives

[DRAKOS]

So, Matt, if I have understand it right,, the entrance for the ten frame deep super is also from above. So we have the entrance for the two half nucs to the right and left up, and the entrance for the 10 frame super in the middle. Correct?

[wcubed]

Matthew,
Disregard my earlier post, #20. You explained the colony background and status on the 2 Q thread. Some confusion on my part when you made the association of 2 nucs, divided in a single deep.

But a nuc, when placed in larger quarters, almost always drops back into the establishment mode and behaves like a first year colony. Wax making is automatic. Does that cloud your conclusions?

Walt

[MattDavey]

Walt, the references to Nuc boxes is that they are 4 frame (deep) boxes. I use them as both Nuc boxes and supers. They are exactly half the width of a 10 frame deep box.

I'd noticed that wax building seems to be done quicker in a Nuc box. Probably because of the smaller area, so wanted to see if that was still the case on a larger hive.

But you are right, there are a number of variables with this hive compared with a standard vertical Langstroth. The extra population because of two queens, different breeds of queens, the half width supers and top entrances could all be contributing factors.

Both queens are 1 year old. Both started winter with 4 frames. I fed a bit and the Italians built more comb, where the Carinolans just stored it and capped it. They were merged before winter, then I divided them with a partition during winter. Both brood nests hard up against the centred partition. Once they both had 3 frames of brood, they were merged again with a new frame on each side of the vertical queen excluder. From then on I used foundationless frames and tried adding new frames in various positions. So that's where I came to the conclusion that adding a frame beside the brood nest was just as good as inside the brood nest.

Drakos, yes there are two top entrances. One on the left and one on the right.

Matthew Davey

[wcubed]

Your conclusion makes sense. In the establishment mode, comb building is one of the top priorities. No comb - no establishment. New comb must be added at the perimeter of existing. However...

I would not use foundationless on a first year colony. They will draw more drone comb without the imprint of foundation. You don't have the problem of varroa mites, but anywhere in the states, there is no advantage in encouraging rapid increase in V mite population. The varroa selects drone brood for reproduction for the longer period of pupa development. The increase in reproduction rate is reported to be in the 3 to 1 range. With only worker brood to work with, the V mite poulation does not increase substantially for each generation - 1 to 1. But those reproducing in drone brood triple in each generation. Exponential population growth.

I think there would be less use of foundationless, if beginners considered that undesirable feature of its use.

Walt

[Tom Davidson]

Wow, thanks, Matt on the steps and process leading up to swarming. I opened the broodnests in an emergency fashion last year and neither of my hives swarmed (lucky). I highly recommend a slatted rack, as it keeps cold breezes off the bottom of the frames, gives extra "hanging out" space for excess bees and gives the queen more room on the frame to lay. Keeps them cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I love my crude, homemade slatted racks.

I think I'll do that method but install the honey frames in my nucs and use them as comb builders.

Fabulous information, everyone!!!