Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - [ocba] Questions

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Thomas Grizzle" <griz AT mindspring.com>
  • To: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Questions
  • Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 15:00:19 -0500

Opinions welcomed (all 10-frame Langstroth):

 

Hive A: Deep on the bottom and a medium on top.  This hive is 2 years old.  Medium on top has lots of honey, some frames almost completely full. Not much pollen, no brood/larvae.  Deep on bottom has the cluster, with lots of pollen, still more honey, several frames with circles of capped brood, some with larvae around them (did not see any eggs, but they were probably there).  Population is good, not overly crowded, seemed just about right.  Did not see any small hive beetles (SHBs)!!

 

Hive B: Deep on bottom, deep in middle, shallow on top.  This hive is 1 year old.  Shallow on top has lots of bees, lots of honey, some pollen, no brood.  Middle deep is where the cluster is, queen was spotted here, lots and lots of capped brood/larvae (probably 6-7 frames with capped brood), lots of honey on the outside frames along with lots of pollen, and lots of bees. Bottom deep was empty drawn out comb, had quite a few bees but no honey, pollen, or brood rearing. No SHBs!

 

Questions…

1)      For Hive A, I’m thinking in late March I need to harvest some honey to make space (leaving some to carry them into April (4 frames?).  Then add another box on top at the same time to create more space and start getting the comb drawn out.  Add a few frames from Hive B to boost population.

2)      For Hive B, I am unsure.  The bottom box is empty, but to remove it would create more space. To move it to the middle box and put the middle on the bottom, if it turned cold again, could they starve?  There is honey in the current middle deep, quite a lot, so maybe not, but the bulk of their food is on top.  Should I put the deep on top and in late March or early April move it to the middle once the cold weather is gone for sure?  I chose to do nothing at present.

Sorry this is so lengthy, but I felt the information was needed to form an opinion.

 

Thanks!

Tom Grizzle



  • [ocba] Questions, Thomas Grizzle, 02/20/2014

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page