I have never heard of this. Normally in our area we have 2 brood boxes by now.
I would not get jumpy about it.who the heck told you this? ............
Yep, people routinely winter with an empty box below.Some use slatted rack. Some put a shim.
I thought there was a commercial guy on here who winters in a single deep with an empty below it, a deep.
i can always count on you to keep me in line. edited it. suppose in some climates it could. Where op is i've not seen it used much with success. Doing it now they will just build it down and fill it so not sure what it will do vs not putting it in.I would not get jumpy about it.
A shallow super below will not hurt for sure.
It may actually help.
You may if you wish.i can always count on you to keep me in line...........
http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=984Chris Baldwin uses a 10-frame system with a shallow box (5 & 11/16”; frame 448 x 137 mm) on the bottom. It is always there. It’s kind of an expansion space which the bees use as they want, more or less without control from the beekeeper. The bees remodel, tear down and build back, the combs in the frames there. Sometimes they are bad in shape, sometimes a lot of drone comb, sometimes good looking well used by the bees.
my original concern about cold weather and open space still stands. Baldwin has his hives in texas and cali for the winter. op is in snow country. I've never seen this used in northern large scale operations. If they do build it out and fill it i don't see the harm but if people just add it when packing away a hive for winter I think it can be detrimental.You may if you wish.
Keep in mind, I am only a student on most subjects.
Here is a real life example for you about a commercial TF beek, just for the reference:
http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=984
Sounds like you have not - seen it.my original concern about cold weather and open space still stands. Baldwin has his hives in texas and cali for the winter. op is in snow country. I've never seen this used in northern large scale operations. If they do build it out and fill it i don't see the harm but if people just add it when packing away a hive for winter I think it can be detrimental.
Your setup seems to be well geared for your climate; it works well here too in northern Ontario.I winter in three deeps. I put all the partially drawn frames in the bottom box, that is usually pretty much empty except for some pollen. Then the brood nest above, and then a deep of sugar syrup on top, with a 3" shim above that with sugar bricks. A inner cover with a notched upper entrance. Then a empty medium filled with grass for a quilt box. And a piece of foam under the lid.
Pchristu, I use mediums and Shallows for supers. I often extract in 2 batches for 2 reasons the first is I run out of supers and need to empty some for more Adding of comb space. the second is for the first extract there are too many bees to take all the supers off, so I need to phase my extracts. With that said I often put mediums on with crimp wire brood foundation , take them for the early extract. then Nadir with the wet comb under the brood nest. the bees then back fill the brood nest a bit working down into this new space in the fall. As the cluster contracts and back fills the remaining supers can then be removed in the second extract phase. Give it a try. BTW I would not bother with the deep frame to get the queen to lay, she will go down when she needs to. the extra time to go back in and make it right, can be saved and the chance you roll the queen in late season avoided. If all you have is foundation then put it on the top and leave it. I do not ever try to winter in 1 -8 frame deep. I just had a couple small splits like yours. I added a deep under, then swapped them with large colony's, to use the large bee population to fill out the small split. good luckHave a couple hives, from splits, that just now are getting packed in single 8 frame deeps. Plan is to add a medium below, let brood nest expand downward in August/September, backfill up above. Hopefully all brood will be up top in spring. To get queen laying in the medium, will place it on top initially, and move one deep frame of eggs/young brood (and queen if I can) into it, letting frame hang down into the deep. Wait a week, expect queen to lay a bit in the other medium frames, then swap the boxes, putting the deep frame back where it belongs. I don’t know whether a single 8F deep is adequate alone for wintering, and having a medium up top with brood is a pain for springtime management.
yes when combining any types, i use news paper. I combine mated laying queen on 2 to 4 frames of bees "often" newspaper combine, double screen and add as a "super" IE to a hive that is needing space one you would "normally" add a super or 2. Bees move up start building/cleaning the Comb, she lays it up as fast as she can. In 3 weeks on a strong hive you can go from 2 frame NUC with 8 frame of foundation, to 10 frame all build 3 frames of honey and 5 frames of brood. Disconnect and do the next one. I did like 5 of them this year. ( Hive and the Honey) bee book has a chapter on 2 queen hives, from there I extrapolated, the "queen add" is identical, I take it off as a "Split" rather than add supers to the 2 Queen hive. In The north when the season is short And you want/have mid season Queens, it may be necessary to boost to get to winter size. Also some what modified version of splitting the coasted off, is to at the 3 week point, when you take the split off, shift to "remove the parent Queen" into a NUC and combine it all, mix the frames a bit. in 5 days the old queen brood is to old to matter, remove the queen and do a second split up of the breeder queen, either forced swarm or emergency.Thanks for the suggestions. I’m assuming you did a newspaper combine when swapping boxes between hives as mentioned at the end of your post?