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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
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Re: [ocba] honey/brood ratio & quantities before extracting?
- 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:
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[ocba] honey/brood ratio & quantities before extracting?,
Margaret Krome-Lukens, 05/25/2015
- Re: [ocba] honey/brood ratio & quantities before extracting?, Randall Austin, 05/25/2015
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