[Titus142]

I recently split my two hives into one of these resource hives. If you have never heard of them, basically two side by side 4 fame nucs that share a bottom board and top cover. They are stacked up to have another 4 frame above (so 8 frames total for one colony). They seem great and keep my yard to a minimum.

I was curious to hear from people more experienced than I on what their experiences with these are and any management techniques they have. How to I keep them from growing to big and swarming? Has anyone ever put honey supers on top over a queen excluder?

My plan is to have queens on deck for the production hives, as well as take brood from the resource hives to buff the production hives. I also hear they are great at drawing comb and cleaning frames as well.

Interested to hear everyone's thoughts!

 

[crofter]

Type supering 4 frame nucs. in the search box. There are many threads on it. Yes it works well.

 

[bushpilot]

Mine overwintered sucessfully, beyond that I am still learning to use it well. I see potential.

This spring I modified mine to have the entrances to both sides on the front. The rear entrance just didn't work well for me.

 

[Cloverdale]

I have been using them for a few years; I buy Palmer queens and receive them beginning of July, have the splits waiting day before delivery. They build up, add another box then I super them (they share a super) by using QE on each side.,They dont bother each other. Overwinter well, I make a candy board with a divider (dont tell M P that) very good with their honey stores so not used much. Foam them for winter too. You can remove any needed frames from them for whatever use you need. I really like them. When hiving it was a PIN to get the back facing hive to face front but it eventually worked. This year I put an entrance in the front of the back facing hive and its working, so Ill turn it around in a while facing front then block the back. Not sure how it will work out.

 

[aran]

i use them too. Brought 18 of 18 through winter fine.
I have 26 splits in them right now.
Just keep adding boxes above them, use them for stealing brood to boost production colonies, put an excluder over them and give them honey boxes to work on together.