I have 3 hives going into the winter. I am looking to expand as much as possible this spring, I also would like to get some honey from them for my own use. What would the be the best way to accoplish this, if its possible. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
You might want to read mdasplitter.com and listen to Mel's video's. It might be just what you are looking for. I live in an entirely different climatic zone and Latitude and could offer you nothing better. Listen closest to someone in your area is my advice.
You'll notice Mel says you can dedicate resources for honey or bees, but not both from the same hive.
You might also check out Michael Palmer's discussions on nucs. I like Mel's ideas, especially his notching technique, but MP has advanced increasing through nucs to a science. There are many similarities, but the 5 over 5 deep nuc box is a great tool. I started 10 this past fall, and plan many more next season.
I concur on the supering of nucs! I do it by having partitions in deep supers. The reason it helps so much is shared heat. Keeping that nest temperature up for comb building and brood rearing is essential. A giant hole in the bottom is NOT. I use screened bottoms to set those nucs on top of strong overwintered hives so they can benefit from that heat too. It can get tall pretty fast, but if beekeeping was easy, every fool would be doing it.
Vance - Do you run into issues removing the second box and thereby mixing the bees?
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