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Rose Hive Management Feedback

964 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Litsinger 
#1 ·
I recently became aware of the Rose hive management philosophy and I am curious if anyone has employed any of the techniques in their management?

In particular, I currently run an all-medium, unlimited broodnest approach and I am thinking through the relative value of nadiring brood boxes prior to the Vernal Equinox to accommodate nest expansion.

If I understand the concept correctly, the general idea would be to overwinter the brood generally in two boxes with attendant necessary stores, which are reversed early in Spring build-up. Following, boxes would be added as necessary directly above the bottom box to accommodate expansion.

The primary benefit of this approach as I see it would be a systematic means of cycling-out old comb while not sacrificing any brood, but I wonder if the brood nest separation is worth the benefit?

I do appreciate all the excellent knowledge I have been able to glean from this site. Thank you to all.

Russ
 
#2 ·
It very much depends on local flow patterns and climate.

Based on videos I've seen about Rose hives, a management system has been developed that works well where the author is, but would not work as well in other places. He is confident the exact same thing could be done world wide and get same results, but me, I very much doubt it.

I would say try it, see what happens. The method is best suited in my view, to an area with a mild spring and long flow.
 
#3 ·
Oldtimer:

I sincerely appreciate your helpful reply. I have certainly learned (as you astutely point out) that all beekeeping is local.

I have also learned as the old saying goes, "You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself."

So I am hopeful that someone has tried this where late Spring is warm and the Summer dearth is long can comment as to how it works for them.

Thanks again for your helpful input. I do appreciate it!

Russ
 
#4 ·
Russ, many of us reverse the boxes in Spring once the hives start to brood up. After all, most likely the bees are in the top box along with any brood. I do question the idea of splitting the brood chamber, especially in early Spring as chilled brood could be the result. If moving comb up and out is your goal, checkerboard the old bottom box, now on top, with new frames and then when they are drawn and the bees are covering them, add the third box, also checkerboarded with the remaining frames, on top of that. The best way to rotate out frames is to date them by year and pull the old ones for splits or wax. Make sure the bees do not have too much room or you will have trouble with SHB and wax moths.
 
#5 ·
JW: Excellent feedback. I do appreciate it. Having already dealt with the scourge of SHB and also paid my "stupid tax" lesson of chilled brood due to too much room early in the season in the past, I do heed your admonition about splitting the brood chamber early on.

I currently run an unlimited broodnest set-up and generally subscribe to Walt Wright's Nectar Management approach such that I am overwintering in more volume than typical, at least for my region. I also run on small-cell foundation while slowly transitioning toward foundationless as time goes on.

Currently, I typically replace drawn brood comb with foundationless when I pull frames to make nucs, etc.

The only real downside to this approach in my experience has been two-fold:

1. It takes a fair bit of time to rotate-out frames without sacrificing brood.
2. Related to #1, it has proven difficult to get enough worker-cell foundationless drawn frames to utilize for honey supers to maintain interchangeability.

As such, I've been looking for a systematic method to get enough mainly worker-cell foundationless comb drawn-out without unduly disrupting brood rearing.

I do appreciate your suggestions about pyramiding the broodnest- that might be a more prudent method to accommodate our long-term goal.
 
#6 ·
I´m not sure about understanding the discussion right because of my limited language abilities,
but I have had some good results rotating frames out by hanging them behind a follower board when they were capped.
Doing this in summer in the top box the brood was not chilled, the frames emptied or filled with honey to be extracted and the combs to be melted.

Bee Beehive Honeybee Apiary Insect
 
#7 ·
Thank you, SiWoKe! I think your approach generally follows the same principles of pyramiding up brood frames which you could ultimately move up and out. The appealing thing to the Rose method (at least conceptually) is the fact that you systematically rotate-out comb on a systematic basis similar to a Warre set-up. Thank you for your feedback- I really do appreciate it!
 
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