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When to Open the Sides of the Broodnest

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#1 ·
"Open the Sides of the Broodnest" - Steps:

1. Several weeks before swarm season, move each outside frame up into a new box and alternate them with new frames, directly above the Broodnest.

2. Insert a new frame on each outside edge of the Broodnest. (So that a Brood frame is only on one side of the new frame.)

3. Check them in 2-3 weeks and repeat if comb in the frames has been mostly drawn.


When to "Open the Sides of the Broodnest"


1. When daily maximum temperatures start getting to 15°C /60°F or above and the weather forecast looks good for the next week.

2. When Drone brood is being raised.

3. When you see a large number of young bees starting to do orientation flights in the afternoons. (Think - wax makers!)

4. When a good deal of pollen is being brought in.


"Opening the Sides of the Broodnest" is done when a beekeeper doesn't have spare drawn comb.


Why do you need spare drawn comb?


Swarm prevention is best done by giving a bee hive plenty of spare drawn comb and breaking up any solid bands of capped honey. The idea is to make sure that there is not a solid honey dome, as the bees want to set a boundary for the nest so that they can fill it up and swarm. Even the gap between boxes can be seen as a boundary, so frames they are using need to be moved.

Typically swarm prevention is done by Supering early and Reversing or Checkerboarding.

When bees are preparing to swarm, they don't make wax, but rather "save it up" for when they find a new home and need to build new comb.

"Opening the Sides" is all about triggering wax production before swarm season and then maintaining wax production into the main flow. So the bees build more comb for raising brood and storing nectar and also use up incoming nectar to max the wax.

As swarm preparation takes a few weeks, "Opening the Sides" is best done at least 4 weeks before swarm season. Several weeks beforehand is best.

The new frames should have only a strip of foundation as a comb guide. I would have no more than half a sheet of foundation on a new frame at most. There must be a HOLE close to the broodnest. The hole in the broodnest is what triggers comb building, (to fill the hole).

The "Sides" of the Broodnest/Cluster are opened up, rather than inserting frames into the Broodnest, so that the cluster is not forced to heat a larger area than what they are used to. Doing that can set back brood rearing and cause issues such as chilled brood if cold weather sets in at this stage of the season.

Bees will often build mostly drone comb before swarm season if the frame is completely foundationless. But with the foundation strip it ends up being about 2/3 worker to 1/3 drone comb. (Comb support helps. Such as wire, fishing line, or in my case I use thin bamboo skewers.)

Having some extra spare drawn comb will also really help with the bees moving into a new box quicker.

The hive should have a few frames with some capped honey, at least on the top corners. I prefer not to feed, but if they haven't got enough stores you may need to, as they will use up all their stores trying to fill the hole(s) with comb. Make sure you leave them some stores close to the broodnest in case bad weather sets in.

Also see: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?290784-Opening-the-Sides-of-the-Broodnest
 
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#5 ·
Will this prevent swarming on its own without any other manipulation .
It has for me and I would think so in most cases.

But it also depends on the strength of your flow. If the bees run out of room to store nectar and the queen has no where to lay eggs, swarm preparations may likely start. But if you haven't got that extra drawn comb, then there's not much else you can do. It will at least delay the process and may be enough of a delay to get to the main flow.
 
#3 ·
I don't understand putting the new frames against the outside walls of the hive at that time of year, doesn't seem like it would help that much in removing the "honey dome" that you referred to. I think that if the weather is as warm as you say it needs to be to do this (at least 60 degrees every day), alternating one or two new frames into the center of the broodnest is not risky imo, and would do more to break the honey dome, give bees comb to draw, and give the queen more space to lay. I think a strong colony at that time of year can handle opening the broodnest like I suggested better than you think. A weak colony would have no need for you to open the center or sides of the broodnest, so we have to be talking about a strong colony here, with plenty of bees to keep the broodnest warm.
 
#7 ·
The new frames go beside brood frames, not outside walls. Encouraging the broodnest to be expanded outwards. Also, the two outside frames go above the broodnest and encourage the nest to be expanded upwards.

I said when temperatures start getting to 15°C/60°F, not talking about when those temperatures are every day.

It may be a climate thing, but we can have temperatures drop back down for several days at a time. So inserting frames inside the broodnest at this time can cause issues, such as chilled brood and/or Chalkbrood.

So the thought is: why risk chilling brood when putting a new frame on the edge of the broodnest works just as well.
 
#4 ·
""Open the Sides of the Broodnest" - Steps:

1. Several weeks before swarm season, move each outside frame up into a new box and alternate them with new frames, directly above the Broodnest."

Which frames are the outside frames? The frames beside the frames of brood? All of them? Such as, 4 frames of brood and 6 frames w/out brood? Move them up and replace them w/ frames of foundation?

Or are you saying the two outermost frames of brood? To move them and replace them w/ frames of foundation?
 
#9 ·
Which frames are the outside frames? The frames beside the frames of brood? All of them? Such as, 4 frames of brood and 6 frames w/out brood? Move them up and replace them w/ frames of foundation?

Or are you saying the two outermost frames of brood? To move them and replace them w/ frames of foundation?
The two outermost frames (one from each side of the box) are moved up.

Then two new frames are inserted beside the outside of the broodnest. This is not the outside of the box.

The idea is not to disturb the brood frames at all. Just put a new on each side of the broodnest.
 
#13 ·
Checkerboarding is done above the broodnest with boxes of frames containing empty comb and frames of honey, and alternating them, there is no moving anything around in the broodnest itself. Understand, I have never done actual checkerboarding myself as layed out by Walt Wright, but I believe this is the basic description of checkerboarding. What I do is open the broodnest with frames of empty comb, which is a different thing.
 
#14 ·
Yes, that is correct. Checkerboarding is NOT touching the brood nest. That's one thing I'm sure of about it.

When you (jmgi) asked about using drawn comb, I assumed you were talking about moving the drawn comb up with honey, which would be checkerboarding. So... Re-reading this... You move the drawn frames from the SIDE of the brood nest UP with mostly new foundation (strips, not foundation) and just some amount of honey if available. I think I've got it!

I would still like to know the advantages, or reasoning I guess, for opening the side of the broodnest versus checkerboarding.
 
#15 ·
... I would still like to know the advantages, or reasoning I guess, for opening the side of the broodnest versus checkerboarding.
Opening the Sides of the Broodnest is done when a beekeeper does not have spare drawn comb.

If you do have a few spare drawn combs, then you can alternate them with new frames in the new box above the Broodnest. It's technically not Walt's Checkerboarding because of the undrawn frames, but you could call it Checkerboarding.

The more empty drawn comb above the Broodnest the better.
 
#17 ·
Just a clarification.

1. Temperatures having reached 15°C/60°F recently and a good weather forecast for the next week, with a few warm days of 13°C/55°F or over forecast.

When you add a new box and move frames around, you change the dynamics of heating the hive. So I think you should give them a few days of warm weather where they are able to break cluster and move resources around if they need to.

For example, if the first couple of outside frames that are moved up have nectar or honey in them, those frames may be robbed out. (This may also stimulate wax making and brood rearing.)


I should also add another point:

5. Start to Open the Sides at least 4 weeks before your typical swarm season.


This should probably overrides all the other points (even the temperature considerations), because once the bees have started Swarm preparations, they may not take any notice of new frames.

If your typical Swarm season starts Mid to Late March then you should be Opening the Sides now.

If they don't have much in the way of feed, please make sure you feed them. (But not too much, just enough to keep them going.)
 
#18 ·
It would be great to see more people give this a go..

Here's an update to the steps for better results.


"Open the Sides of the Broodnest" - Steps:

1. Several weeks before swarm season, move each outermost frame from a brood box up into the middle of a new (undrawn) box, placed directly above the Broodnest.

2. Insert a new frame on each outside edge of the Broodnest in the brood box. (So that a Brood frame is only on one side of each new frame.)

3. Check them in 2-3 weeks and repeat the steps if comb in the (two) new frames in the brood box has been mostly drawn, but instead alternate the drawn frames that are moved up, with the undrawn frames.

4. Check again in 2-3 weeks. The new box should now be mostly drawn. Repeat the steps again with another new box on top.

Note:

For the bees to move into a box, I have found it best to have at least 3 drawn combs together, in the middle of the new box. So if you have a spare drawn comb, more the better.

This is for deep frames. If you use mediums the times will be less.
 
#19 ·
I'm a newb so please forgive me asking this clarification question. But when you state this:

1. Several weeks before swarm season, move each outermost frame from a brood box up into the middle of a new (undrawn) box, placed directly above the Broodnest.

Do the frames being moved up contain brood or not? I can't decide if you are referring to the "outermost frame containing brood" or the "outermost frame boardering the brood nest without brood".

Thanks!
 
#20 ·
If I understand him correctly, you move the two drawn frames from the very outside of the box up to the top box and you place an undrawn comb inbetween the two. You then rearrange the bottom box so that you have two undrawn frames against the brood nest.

For example,
(E = empty frame, D = drawn frame, B = brood frame)

EEEDEDEEEE
DDEBBBBEDD
 
#21 ·
How much does variable weather factor in?

I'm seeing orientation flights on about half the hives, girls are bringing in a pretty good bit of pollen. April 1 is definately swarm season for us though March 15 isn't unusual and my local queen breeder is raising Qs by then.

Temps in F
Feb 5 Low tonight 28
Followed by 10 days above 60 and headed towwards 77.
Next 10 days on and off below 60 (if you believe the long range forecast)
And I'm guessing we get a hard 3 or 4 day freezing ice storm thrown at us early March
 
#24 ·
Most of the comb gets drawn in the first week.

So I would be looking at the low temps forecasted for the next week to be above freezing.

Because the frames that are moved up are directly above the brood nest, they still have direct access to those frames. Ideally those frames should have a decent amount of capped honey on them. As long as they have direct access to honey they can cope with a few freezing nights.
 
#26 ·
First of all I realize that in the throes of urgent bee work last Spring I did not return and thank Matt for his explanation of this technique. Since I was coming out of my first winter I had virtually no empty, but drawn, comb to work with. So I decided to follow Matt's instructions - and it worked. Thank you, Matt!

I had three hives and although I did eventually split my largest one when I started to think they looked swarmy, my two others never really got swarm-minded. And they grew into enormous colonies over the summer as I just steadily kept doing this right through and into our main early summer flow. One colony started with only about eight frames of drawn (or partially drawn comb) and finished up in four 10-frame deeps. Thatsa a lotta wax! (This huge colonie is probaby already perusing travel brochures so I expect I'll have to keep on my toes to keep them from swarming this year.)

What I did was remove the outermost frame (or frames) from the brood box and insert a foundationless frame with a starter strip on one (or both sides) of the brood-frame cluster. I did this starting the third week of April and carried on until mid-June. And unlike Matt's instructions I found that I needed to do this (or at least check on the progress) every 5-10 days. So it was an enormous amount of work and intrusive to the bees. But it worked to prevent swarming. Aside from queen cups, which greatly alarmed me at first, I saw no serious swarm preps in two of the three.

Now, my situation is a little atypical, so your mileage may vary. Here's what was different from normal practice:

1) My hives are insulated with foam panels in the winter, which I kept on the stacks until Memorial Day, so I really had little risk of danger from sharp cold snaps (with temps well below freezing) in April and May which are very common here in northern NY. For reference, no one around here plants out peppers and tomatos before the end of May, and beans don't go in until June 5th. And last Spring winter lingered on into April, then it gave up and while it was cool, it didn't go backwards as it sometimes does.

2) During the first couple of manipulations I did not remove outside frames, I just removed part of the internal insulation panels that I winter with - which functionally expanded the space that had been reduced all winter and allowed me to add the empty undrawn frames beside the brood nest. But I did not have frames to move up, in the usual way. I had a some empty undrawn frames (the rattiest of all left from the cut-out) which I placed above the brood nest since that was all I had. The frames were so unloved that in some cases the bees ignored them completely so I inadvertently created a gap in the center of the brood nest in the second from bottom box. I eventually worked these outwards and out of service.

3) The bees drew large amounts of drone comb/honey cells before they settled down to wall-to-wall worker brood cells. I plan to use Lauri's partial sheet/centered approach this year to see if that makes a difference.

4) Eventually (first week of June with Black Locust about to pop) they were drawing so fast I could hardly keep up with them so I just plunked down full boxes of empty, undrawn, foundation, with scarecly one or two frames having even a hint of drawn wax on them. The bees just went to work on box after box, right up to early July. This was the same in both the hive stack that was all deeps and the one that was nearly all mediums. And it was the same for a hive that used a bottom entrance and the one that used a top entrance. (In the latter case I just added the empty box below the entrance shim.)

5) I don't use queen excluders and let the bees decide where to put their brood as the season progresses. And I do have a 2" wind skirt around the bottom of my lower box between the bottom board and the lowest box (like a slatted board, but no slats.) I run a SBB over a solid board. Reduced entrances, and often, robbing screens more or less constantly.

I am trying to formulate a plan for my (now) four colonies this spring. I expect I will have lots of drawn comb, but since I took no honey it may still be filled with honey. (Come on, girls - start eating!) As I mentioned above, I think I will try Lauri's partial sheet idea. And if I have them, I can checkerboard frames in the boxes above the brood nest. And I am thinking of using a Snelgrove board if I get antsy about swarms towards the end of the build-up as I'd like to make splits from my two that weren't split last summer anyway. But I'd like to wait as long as possible so I have flow-fed drones for the virgins to mate with.

Matt's method worked well for me. But was a lot of work, perhaps because the pace of the seasons up here in the north is compressed, not long and slow and spread out as it is in warmer climates. And it worked without having to make increase in two out of three, which was what I had hoped for.

Enj.
 
#32 ·
3) The bees drew large amounts of drone comb/honey cells before they settled down to wall-to-wall worker brood cells. I plan to use Lauri's partial sheet/centered approach this year to see if that makes a difference
I have used a similar technique to control swarming, but with full sheets of foundation, to prevent the drone comb, excess drone brood on the hive and after drag the mites .

To get closer to the Matt's technique, that involves creating a hole at the ends of the nest area, and to avoid the problem identified above I will do the following to try: put a portion of foundation sheet from the top to the down on the right side and left side of the frame. I leave the hole on the center from the top to the down. My idea is that in the center of the frame bees have less impetus to produce drone comb. Has anyone tried it?
 
#28 ·
Thanks Enjambres.

Others in the US have said every 1-2 weeks is more suitable for them. I can get away with 2-3 weeks here. It really depends on the amount of nectar coming in.

After the third time of doing it, I've found that as long as there is evidence of wax making, you don't need go into a brood box. I just put another new box on top and move up a few drawn frames.
 
#29 ·
Arlindi version:
For example,
(E = empty frame, D = drawn frame, B = brood frame)
EEEDEDEEEE
DDEBBBBEDD

Matt's version:
EEEEDDEEEE
DDEBBBBEDD

D = the New frame now.

The difference is where Matt put the 2 drawn comb in the upper box at the center. What if they had stop drawing the 2 new comb? Do I need to go in to inspect the brood nest for a possible swarm cells? Do I need to feed 2:1 to stimulate a flow if outside nectar not available for this to work?
How long to keep up with this hive expansion using this method? Can I combine this method with other method like checker boarding, excluding the queen to the lower box, slat matt, etc?
 
#30 · (Edited)
Sorry Beepro that is NOT correct.
In the above example:

E = A new undrawn empty frame with no more than 1/2 a sheet of foundation.
D = A drawn comb with some honey on it.

If they are ignoring new frames and not drawing wax, then look for swarm cells.

I can checkerboard supers after repeating the steps for the third time.

I usually start this method once nectar is coming in and there are a few frames with at least a 1/3 of capped honey on them. I prefer not to feed.

The bees will draw out comb as long as there is nectar coming in.

You could use a queen excluder above the second brood box.
 
#31 ·
For clarification, I would prefer to use the following notation:

N = A new undrawn empty frame with no more than 1/2 a sheet of foundation.
H = A drawn comb with some honey, nectar or pollen.
B = a frame with some brood on it.


So let's look at an example:
I have made the frames that I expect the bees to draw out in Bold.

START:

HHHBBBBHHH


AFTER FIRST MANIPULATION:

NNNNHHNNNN
HHNBBBBNHH


AFTER 2 WEEKS (top two drawn frames were emptied out):

NNNNHHNNNN
HHBBBBBBHH


AFTER SECOND MANIPULATION (expect the bees to work on at least 4 new frames):

NNHNHHNHNN
HNBBBBBBNH


AFTER 2 WEEKS (Brood on bottom of frames in the top box, bees expanded in top more than expected):

NHHBBBBHHN
HHBBBBBBHH


AFTER THIRD MANIPULATION (Add a new box on top, 8 new frames for them to work on):

NNHNHHNHNN
NHNBBBBNHN
HNBBBBBBNH

In the last example I'm expecting the bees to work on 8 new frames because there's 2 in the bottom box, 4 in the middle box and 2 in the top box. This is usually enough to get them past the swarm/repo cutoff and into the main flow.

The next time I go in I'm just looking at the top box and making sure it is continuing to be drawn out. It may need another box on it by then. Again I just move up a few frames of the outer honey frames.

If they appear to have stopped drawing comb, just put two new frames beside brood in the middle box to trigger wax making again.
 
#40 ·
AFTER FIRST MANIPULATION:

NNNNHHNNNN
HHNBBBBNHH


AFTER 2 WEEKS (top two drawn frames were emptied out):

NNNNHHNNNN
HHBBBBBBHH


AFTER SECOND MANIPULATION (expect the bees to work on at least 4 new frames):

NNHNHHNHNN
HNBBBBBBNH


AFTER 2 WEEKS (Brood on bottom of frames in the top box, bees expanded in top more than expected):

NHHBBBBHHN
HHBBBBBBHH


AFTER THIRD MANIPULATION (Add a new box on top, 8 new frames for them to work on):

NNHNHHNHNN
NHNBBBBNHN
HNBBBBBBNH
Matt as a matter of standardisation of my hives I work most of my hives with mediums over depth nest.

My question is: if I open the holes in 4 hives, put the mediums on them with drawn comb, and on the second handling and following H and N frames of these four hives go up a fifth hive with two or more depth over, this will result for swarm prevention? My idea is to avoid having too many colonies with two or three deep at the top and only have some hives with this design, 2 or 3 deep above the nest. All others will have over the nest, mediums for nectar and then I will use in these mediums the chekerboarding. If I was not clear I apologize , I'll rephrase my statement.
 
#33 · (Edited)
The bees will fill any hole with drone comb initially, especially if there is no foundation on the top bar. Once they are happy with the number of drones in the hive they start building worker comb.

With a strip of foundation along the top bar they will build worker cells for a while but then transition to drone cells. I typically see the bottom third built as drone with the foundation strip.

Better to use worker foundation down the middle of the frame.
 
#34 ·
I understand now what works best.
Having said that I do not have partial frames of undrawn comb.
Will this work at all if for the N space one has drawn but empty comb or full sheets of undrawn comb?
 
#35 ·
I can see that in a large operation it is harder to monitor and do the frame manipulation unless you have
more helpers. But in a small scale this can bee done successfully. I would take out the drone comb to put in another
hive without any drones. This way they will think there is enough drones to make some more worker
cells. The bees are not too picky about which drones come from where. They're just as happy with them all.
 
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