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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Brad Kosiba <bradkosiba AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Beekeeper lingo question
  • Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:53:24 -0400

Brad,

Some states such as Oregon have additional criteria around amount of brood that must be present for a marketable pollination hive, but in general they are just talking about bees. Number of frames is the number covered by bees. You can just look between the frames, once you know what you are looking for. Doing so from the bottom is probably more accurate (just flip the box up at an angle). At least that's my understanding of how it works. I don't think there is a set method; at least I cannot find a reference to one.

One interesting factor is that in cool weather, a hive will have fewer frames covered by bees than in warm weather, due to the fact that the bees cluster more closely together in cooler weather. So for accurate grading, you'd have to take temperature into account.

Randall



On 8/21/2015 9:11 PM, Brad Kosiba wrote:
Ok, this is one for our advanced beekeepers - 

I am reading some of Randy Oliver's (ScientificBeekeeping.com guy) articles in American Bee Journal.  In his February article this year he is talking about grading how strong his hives are, such as for the almond harvest.  

He is talking about "one framers" or "two framers" , etc. up to six-framers.  Does this refer to # frames covered by bees, frames of brood, or what?  How do you get these numbers?  Is he looking from the top, bottom, pulling frames???  He does talk about "lift the box and grade from the bottom", but if so what counts as a "frame"?

Thanks,

Brad

--
Bradley E Kosiba, PhD
Biochemist-Beekeeper-Gardener-Scouter
 


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