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Checkerboarding question

11K views 33 replies 16 participants last post by  squarepeg 
#1 ·
Hello all,
I have quite a few hives that are more than ready for a second deep; however, the bees will not move up into the new box. Like I said, they are pretty packed into the first hive body. I would like to try checkerboarding, but I don't have any extra drawn comb to work with. So the question I have is this: can I checkerboard with undrawn plastic foundation? If so, should I brush extra wax onto the foundation. Any and all input is well appreciated. Thanks.
 
#3 ·
Hi westernbeekeeper,
I had the same problem a couple months ago. Bees wouldn't touch the upper box except to just walk around a bit and I didn't have any extra drawn out comb.
I took two frames from the bottom deep (the two outermost on either side, like frame 1 and frame 10) and moved them up into the empty deep in like positions 2 or 3 and 8 or 9. Replaced the frames taken with new frames of foundation but I moved frames out so that these were put in positions 3 or 4 and 7 or 8.
So it was not complete checkerboarding but I needed them to draw comb on the other frames so this was my best option. Then I sprayed the other frames of foundation that were not drawn out with sugar water 1:1.
Bees still did not draw out new comb but did go up and clean the sugar water off the frames.
So after a couple weeks I took two more frames from the bottom deep and moved them up into the top closer to the middle and finally they started to draw out comb. But remember that you replaced the frames in the bottom with undrawn foundation as well so they will have to draw those out too. I made sure that drawn frames put in the top had undrawn on either side of them and vise versa on the bottom.
This hive is now 2 deeps and it swarmed on Easter Sunday, before I added the second deep.
 
#6 ·
I had the same problem about three weeks ago, I use wax foundation and the bees just chewed on it until several sheets were pretty well wrecked so I scattered all the frames throughout both boxes in a complete checkerboard, two weeks later the upper deep was completely drawn out and four of the frames had capped brood, however I must say that feeding them 1:1 syrup I feel is a big help to stimulating them to draw out the comb.
 
#7 ·
If the bees are not in the upper deep, then it is their opinion that they do not need it yet. I would like to think that the bees are smarter than I on matters of bees. Build their populations more, and they may change their mind.

If you insist on them occupying 2 boxes, hang a couple of frames from the lower box up into the upper box.

Crazy Roland
 
#9 ·
I checkerboard using PF100 plastic frames, brood and all. I started this early spring when day temp were in the 60s and night time temp were as low as 30s, right before drones appeared. They kept the brood warm and bee population exploded. I did lots of 50/50 or 33/33/33 splits and the bees had to draw all new comb. These hives now have supers or a third deep on them. And they have all give up frames of brood for swarms and cut outs.

The first super I put on there was a good flow so they built/filled/capped in one month. put another supper on and did not touch it in the next month (except to eat the foundation) checker boarded that now too, but I think it will have to wait until fall for a flow.
 
#12 ·
This may have been answered already, but a search on checker boarding resulted in more info than I am able to sift through.

Checker boarding, as I understand it reduces the tendency to swarm by making the bees think that they do not have sufficient stores to swarm.

My question is what is important about having empty comb in alternating positions? Why not several empty frames in the center of the box or even a whole box of empty frames?
 
#21 ·
My question is what is important about having empty comb in alternating positions? Why not several empty frames in the center of the box or even a whole box of empty frames?
I observed that bees will take to empty frames far more readily if they are sandwiched between two full frames.

Edited to add, I don't break up the brood nest. It can be hard to do with a queen filling every empty cell with an egg. Having observed that I am not sure how much of a problem it would be. at certain times of the year to move the brood nest around. I did not risk it. maybe I will this next spring.

I was told I would be sorry because I had moved brood further way from the honey. that was not the case. every frame of brood has it's own honey and pollen.
 
#14 ·
Splitting the brood nest by placing new frames in the middle can be quite lethal this time of year. The bees have to decide which half of the brood to save and sacrifice the other half. The outer frames of the cluster will not fare well even if they cluster on that half. Fall Winter is the worst time of year for comb manipulation, checkerboarding. If you do not know what it is or how it crashes the hive you should not risk it. You will be able to re-use the equipment from the dead out next year though.
 
#17 ·
.....I don't think what Walt calls checkerboarding is what people are describing here. Walt talks about checkerboard ABOVE the broodnest, not alternating brood with comb or foundation. I think Walt gets a bad rap by people hearing the term checkerboard and assuming they should separate the brood.

Deknow
 
#19 ·
Ralph, then you are doing well. I don't have an opinion on Walt's approach, but almost everyone that I hear discuss it (from beginners to full fledged commercial beekeepers) don't understand this. Perhaps it is the $10 charge to read his own document that adds to the confusion.

Deknow
 
#24 ·
If I were to guess (and it would only be a guess) is that the alternating of honey and empty comb above the nest represents a damaged nest configuration (bees would never raise brood below empty comb) but also a reserve of food and the confidence three the bees are well provisioned.....just not well enough to swarm.

The mist common legitimate objection I hear for his plan is that there are many ways to accomplish the same goals....checkerboarding may work, but so do other simpler plans.

Deknow
 
#27 ·
I think I read somewhere that one of the things CBing does is set some guides for the new comb, ie if you put a bunch of empties next to each other the bees will build a comb so thick on one that the next one they build will be deformed away from the first.
 
#28 ·
I have seen this for myself. It is compounded if the foundation is not nearly perfectly flat also. But the bees can make quite a mes of a box full of foundation. Eventually it starts getting cleaned up though. bees will chew away comb that is not suitable to them and rebuild.
 
#30 ·
foundation and empty foundationless frames aren't involved with checkerboarding, only drawn comb is used.

in a nutshell, and for those who have overwintered in a single deep with one super of honey above, checkerboarding is taking a second super of empty drawn comb and mixing it in with the honey.

like this:

h = honey d = drawn comb (these are two medium or shallow 10 frame supers, with only 9 frames)

h d h d h d h d h
d h d h d h d h d

the 'nutshell' reason is to keep the bees from having a solid dome of honey reserve overhead, in an effort to
prevent swarming.

the side benefit is you may get a bigger honey harvest.

it worked as described on the one hive i had enough drawn comb in reserve to do it with. i'll be doing several others next spring.

walt's papers also describe what to look for in the hive, prior to seeing swarm cells, to see if they are making preps to issue a reproductive swarm.
 
#31 ·
The purpose of checker boarding, or nectar management, is to prevent the colony from "thinking" that they have sufficient honey for casting a swarm.

That being the case, I see no reason that the empty comb placed in the super above the brood has to be in any particular pattern. It seems to me that replacing any frames of honey with drawn comb would serve the same purpose. I do not understand why frames 3,5, & 7 are specified.

The term checker boarding may be an unfortunate choice of words. Nectar management seems more descriptive of the procedure.
 
#32 ·
you would think. mr. wright has addressed this specific question several times on the forum, and emphasizes that it takes drawn comb to make it work.

my personal experience this year was 7 out of 7 overwintered nucs swarmed not long after i put foundation above the brood nest.
 
#34 ·
more to your point. the idea is to expand the broodnest as well as making them think there are not sufficient stores. if they get the queen laying in those alternate frames, they will use the honey and expand into the adjacent ones.
 
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