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9 Posts
I'm a new beekeeper this year. I bought a hive with two deep brood chambers, painted it and set it up. Bought 3 books and read them through. Spent alot of time at sites like this learning. Here's a question I can't find the answer to.
I installed a 3lb package of bees last week similar to this method. The queen cage went into the center of the bottom brood box, then I set the second box on top with 4 frames missing from the center. I dumped the bees through the top box and onto the top rails of the bottom box and then replaced the missing frames on top. Added a top-hive feeder and closed it up.
Now I'm thinking that I should have left the second box off so that the bees could concentrate on building out a single brood chamber. When I check on the queen this weekend, should I take the opportunity to remove the top box? Or just don't worry about it?
I'm in New England and will need two brood boxes eventually anyway. So I figured it couldn't hurt to start with them already in place. But the more I learn, the more it appears that I should let them build up before adding more space.
Thanks so much for any guidance you folks can provide. I'm sure I'll be making many more mistakes. To be honest, I'd have it no other way!
I installed a 3lb package of bees last week similar to this method. The queen cage went into the center of the bottom brood box, then I set the second box on top with 4 frames missing from the center. I dumped the bees through the top box and onto the top rails of the bottom box and then replaced the missing frames on top. Added a top-hive feeder and closed it up.
Now I'm thinking that I should have left the second box off so that the bees could concentrate on building out a single brood chamber. When I check on the queen this weekend, should I take the opportunity to remove the top box? Or just don't worry about it?
I'm in New England and will need two brood boxes eventually anyway. So I figured it couldn't hurt to start with them already in place. But the more I learn, the more it appears that I should let them build up before adding more space.
Thanks so much for any guidance you folks can provide. I'm sure I'll be making many more mistakes. To be honest, I'd have it no other way!