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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Margaret Krome-Lukens <mskromelukens AT gmail.com>, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] honey/brood ratio & quantities before extracting?
  • Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 15:52:25 -0400

Margaret,

Are your mediums 10-frame or 8-frame?

Based on your description, I think things may be coming along just fine.

You are going to need that 3rd super of honey to get through the summer dearth.

The only question is whether the queen has sufficient empty cells to lay eggs in. If not, pull out some of those fully filled frames and put them in the freezer for later in the year. Replace them with foundation if you don't have any empty drawn comb to use.

If your mediums are 10-frame, then three boxes are plenty of space for your year-round brood nest. I would not add a fourth. But if they are 8-frame, in my opinion you should try to get them to draw comb on that 4th super and use all 4 as your year-round brood nest. This is all simple math -- count the square inches of comb space with each configuration, using 2 ten-frame deep boxes (20 deep frames) as the benchmark for the desired year-round space. Based on the size of foundation, comb space on a deep frame is approx 8-1/2 by 16-3/4 inches and on a medium frame is approx 5-3/4 by 16-3/4 inches  (plus or minus). Too much space is bad, as is too little.

Depending on where you are located, the honey flow is probably rapidly slowing down and will certainly stop in the next few weeks. If you do need more comb to be drawn, pretty soon you'll need to feed the bees thin sugar syrup to get them to do it.

I hope this helps a little.

Randall



On 5/25/2015 3:24 PM, Margaret Krome-Lukens wrote:
Hey folks,

I've got a year-old hive that looked strong coming into spring, and I'm pretty sure it swarmed (saw swarm cells, now there are many fewer bees, and more drones than usual).  It does seem queen-right - I didn't see her, but saw new eggs today. 

All our hives are in medium hive bodies.  Before they swarmed I put a 4th medium on (to no avail, alas!).  The 4th medium hasn't been touched, still - no comb built up or anything.

The 3rd medium is full of honey, most of it capped - no brood cells at all.  The bottom two mediums have a 5 frames of brood between them (all new laying, two of them really spotty pattern).  The rest of the frames in the bottom two mediums are honey and a little bit of pollen.

My questions include:
- Do I need to do anything for these girls?  Extra frame of brood from a healthy hive?  Keep the 4th medium on in case they suddenly realize they can use it, and have enough bees to do so?
- Would y'all leave the honey so they have plenty of food while building back up their numbers, or does that sound like more than they need?  My intent in keeping hives is to help bees, and honey harvest would be cool if it happened, but is more like a side benefit for me.

Thanks everybody!

Margaret


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