Joined
·
1,674 Posts
So I did a late August graft and I've got two more queens that are now laying. See this post for more details if necessary. But I have a problem with enough resources to winter them.
One queen is in a 5 frame deep nuc with a frame feeder. The other is in a two frame mating nuc with deep frames. I mostly run 8 frame gear and all of my deep boxes and most of my drawn deep frames are in use as I more than doubled my apiary size this summer. All my other hives are well stocked for winter. I also have two medium super 8s full of capped honey that I can give the nucs. I have some unused 10 frame boxes, all are mediums.
The resource problem is one of boxes. I've got enough honey and enough frames.
I can build a 10 frame divided deep on Saturday morning. That will let me winter both new queens side by side. But to give them honey for winter I can either put dividers in two of my 10 frame mediums, giving each colony 1 story of 4 deeps, and two stories of 4 medium frames of honey each. Although they would have a division board, I can't just un-stack them for inspection since each story is a full box. I think that to inspect I would have to remove all the frames on both sides and keep them separate.
How much of a problem is this going to be when inspecting, especially in the spring time?
I could go ahead and make four medium size four frame supers. Would that be a better path? That would be wintering them on 1 story of 4 deeps and two stories of 4 mediums. Thats 5 boxes to make, and I'm not too keen on making 4 frame medium nucs.
Or I could steal the second story of full deeps from another hive, give it both mediums to winter on, and then set up the new queens in a double 4x4.
The first option has the least amount of building, but can the double nuc work when the upper stories still consist of one box?
One queen is in a 5 frame deep nuc with a frame feeder. The other is in a two frame mating nuc with deep frames. I mostly run 8 frame gear and all of my deep boxes and most of my drawn deep frames are in use as I more than doubled my apiary size this summer. All my other hives are well stocked for winter. I also have two medium super 8s full of capped honey that I can give the nucs. I have some unused 10 frame boxes, all are mediums.
The resource problem is one of boxes. I've got enough honey and enough frames.
I can build a 10 frame divided deep on Saturday morning. That will let me winter both new queens side by side. But to give them honey for winter I can either put dividers in two of my 10 frame mediums, giving each colony 1 story of 4 deeps, and two stories of 4 medium frames of honey each. Although they would have a division board, I can't just un-stack them for inspection since each story is a full box. I think that to inspect I would have to remove all the frames on both sides and keep them separate.
How much of a problem is this going to be when inspecting, especially in the spring time?
I could go ahead and make four medium size four frame supers. Would that be a better path? That would be wintering them on 1 story of 4 deeps and two stories of 4 mediums. Thats 5 boxes to make, and I'm not too keen on making 4 frame medium nucs.
Or I could steal the second story of full deeps from another hive, give it both mediums to winter on, and then set up the new queens in a double 4x4.
The first option has the least amount of building, but can the double nuc work when the upper stories still consist of one box?