Single brood box colonies

Almost all the 'single box' management that I've seen still requires multiple brood boxes at certain times of the year (pre-swarm build-up). It's just that by winter, everything has been managed back down to a single, overwintering brood box. It also usually involves heavy feeding of that single box later in the year because all of the honey stores (2nds) are taken. For a couple years my strategy has been to overwinter in doubles, then about this time of year (for me) go out and take away the empty bottoms (usually the cluster has moved to the top and has started brood rearing), rearrange the frames in the empties to accommodate splits and then add them back when the hive needs space. These tops can then be stripped as splits (swarm control) if desired. With the correct timing of split removals, you can pretty much manage the bees to use the next second box that is put on as a honey super, which will be my winter feed. Additional space in the form of honey supers helps prevent swarming. It's hard to explain in words, but much of this was gleaned from info from Ian Steppler's videos and then customized to my own style.

Regarding your post though...I haven't tried single 8's, my equipment is 10 frame. I do overwinter double stack 5-frame nucs, where essentially all of the stores are in the top 5 frames, so I think with judicious bees in my climate I could get an 8-frame box through the winter. My approach does allow for single box treatments in the spring and a period of single box inspections (during spring build-up), unless the hive is particularly large and I elect to leave them in 2 boxes. However, I don't think that single brood box management in any configuration is going to be any less lifting or box moving...FWIW

8 framers are fine. In a bigger box you can a) inspect much more comfortably and b) you winter the bees better in it. A big brood box with deep frames is good for summer and winter.

Swarms and honey binding is not much of a problem, IF you keep on supering very early. I put on another honey super once there is a drop of nectar in the top super.

Most people are not aware, that nectar is not honey. And honey is not nectar. The difference is the moisture. And thus the: volume. 100 pounds of nectar makes 50 pounds of honey (roughly). The nectar has to be buffered somewhere. If there is no buffer available, the bees will make it. Either by drawing wild and burr comb in the deep floor, between combs and boxes, under the lid...everywhere. Or they backfill the broodnest. Thus leading to a shutdown of the broodnest, which in turn kicks off swarming issues.

All this can be avoided by adding more honey supers early.

You can "open up" the broodnest by shuffling brood frames around, or adding more broodboxes, or shuffling brood boxes and frames...but to me this is a rather helpless method by not understanding the underlying biology behind the bee hive. It is laborious, too. And a lot of labour is a good hint, that something is not right...

Add supers. Problems gone. Provide the buffer the bees need.

PS: You need good queens, too, that continue to lay eggs and fill the brood box with brood. Continues to lay eggs even if there are swarm cells. With this queens the supering is successful. If you have queens, like a lot of Carnolians do, that stop egg laying when the first swarms cells appear, and shut down the broodnest, the broodnest always get backfilled. So it is a question of selection and breeding. The easiest way to become an easy-beekeeping-beekeeper is to work on your selection. And it is easy to select, too. Just watch how the queen reacts to swarm cells: shutdown of the broodnest? Or continues to fill all combs with eggs?

Roland said:

higher brood production

Click to expand...

Also with respect...I just want to you overthink certain aspects. For example:

Do you really think that a queen can lay more eggs that she is physically capable? Adding more combs will physically stretch her ability to lay eggs? (no...)

Do you run faster in bigger shoes? Using bigger running shoes makes you run faster? (Of course not...)


I reckon the queen has a physical limit to lay eggs. So adding more combs beyond the queens physical ability to lay is useless.



My thinking on this is: you run best in the shoes, that fit perfectly to your feet. If your runners are in your size, not too small, not too large, but fitting perfectly, you walk more comfortably and without pain. You are able to achieve your best results.

Same is with the queens and the broodnest. You don't get more brood with more combs. By adding lots and lots of brood combs you make more brood possible than would be in a small hive with much less brood space. But you can't get over the queen's physics.

By adapting the broodnest to the queen's ability to lay eggs, you achieve two things: optimal running of the queen (optimal performance). And second: much less work.



All living things are different sized. Look in a room with a bunch of people: although they are all humans, they all differ in size. That is true for most living things. Why is that? Genetics, circumstances of growing up, nutrition, epigenetics, who knows what. Fact is, you as a living thing grow into your body organically and most of the times the size you are in, is the best size for you as a living thing. (not true, if malnutritioned of course.)

Same is with the bee colonies. You would need to build a different sized brood box for each colony. Of course you don't do that. By using standard sized frames and boxes, you try to get close to the size of the colony. But in almost all case there is no standard hive, so what happens the bees live in either too big shoes or in too small shoes. Which makes them perform only half as good as they would in optimal sized broodnests.

Solution to this comes with the follower board in a huge brood box. As was used/invented by Brother Adam. You easily adapt the broodnest to the queen's and the colony's size and from there the colony runs in perfectly sized shoes. Which makes them perform optimally.

It produces a lot of unnecessary work to work around problems you create by using not-adapted boxes.

Before you answer, wait a little. I post another post on how this works.