Still a foot of snow around the hives and I have too much time on my hand which results in me thinking too much.
I appreciate the input on my recent thread about if I should removing insulation now with the related activity and population on my 10 frame double deeps and my fears of an early swarm. (Assuming I get through the next few weeks) While I have quite a few medium extracted supers with full comb and a smaller pile of partially built, I was thinking about the lack of built out deep frames with comb (aside from the ones in the hives) and am wondering once the temperatures break into the 50's F during the days and above 40 at night, would it be worth doing a little manipulation once the top feeders go back on? My thoughts were originally to do a reverse of the deeps but now I'm thinking to leave well enough alone initially and add another 10 frame deep on top with the 4.5 gallon ML top feeders (as stated, once the weather breaks). The girls reacted extremely well last year to the top feeders and from 5 frame nuc's built up 15 more full frames in less than a month early on. With three deeps on, with the QE between the top (third) deep and feeder, the Boss Lady would have full range to lay eggs. I could, once they get build comb along and established, I would reverse the second deep (former top) with the bottom, recycling out the old 5 frames black comb for other use (swarm trap, etc.) replacing them with new frames to keep the building part going. Assuming I could get another deep of comb and hopefully brood by early May (start of swarm season here) I might be able to get multiple splits from each hive as I am planning on adding some new VSH queen stock in May. Obviously I would feed, both pollen and syrup as heavy as the girls take it to support them, even through early flows and all of this would be dependent on weather. I was thinking about doing this last fall but was advised that they wouldn't build comb that late but there was plenty of new burr comb on the bottom of the quit boxes I put on in mid November.
I appreciate the input on my recent thread about if I should removing insulation now with the related activity and population on my 10 frame double deeps and my fears of an early swarm. (Assuming I get through the next few weeks) While I have quite a few medium extracted supers with full comb and a smaller pile of partially built, I was thinking about the lack of built out deep frames with comb (aside from the ones in the hives) and am wondering once the temperatures break into the 50's F during the days and above 40 at night, would it be worth doing a little manipulation once the top feeders go back on? My thoughts were originally to do a reverse of the deeps but now I'm thinking to leave well enough alone initially and add another 10 frame deep on top with the 4.5 gallon ML top feeders (as stated, once the weather breaks). The girls reacted extremely well last year to the top feeders and from 5 frame nuc's built up 15 more full frames in less than a month early on. With three deeps on, with the QE between the top (third) deep and feeder, the Boss Lady would have full range to lay eggs. I could, once they get build comb along and established, I would reverse the second deep (former top) with the bottom, recycling out the old 5 frames black comb for other use (swarm trap, etc.) replacing them with new frames to keep the building part going. Assuming I could get another deep of comb and hopefully brood by early May (start of swarm season here) I might be able to get multiple splits from each hive as I am planning on adding some new VSH queen stock in May. Obviously I would feed, both pollen and syrup as heavy as the girls take it to support them, even through early flows and all of this would be dependent on weather. I was thinking about doing this last fall but was advised that they wouldn't build comb that late but there was plenty of new burr comb on the bottom of the quit boxes I put on in mid November.