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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Shadi Cinpinski <shadikaze AT gmail.com>, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] 1st year bee-keeper question
  • Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2017 16:16:13 -0500

Shadi,

Do you have 10-frame or 8-frame boxes? That's an important piece of information when talking about space.

If 10-frame, then you shouldn't need two deeps plus a medium super yet. As a year-round brood chamber, that's too much space for the bees to keep under control, in my opinion (7,140 square inches of comb space versus the recommended 5,440). Even with 8-frame, two deeps and a medium is 5,712 square inches, nearly 300 more than optimal. Don't worry about that right now, though, just keep it in mind when you pull surplus supers off the hive in June.

You have the classic condition for reversing: a totally empty bottom box. (Never reverse there is brood in both boxes and so reversing would split it up.) If you've got lots of nectar/honey in the second deep, then go ahead and reverse the deeps if that's what you want to do. As a purely practical matter, I've never found this to make the slightest difference in swarming. The queen isn't stupid -- she'll "reverse herself" and move to the bottom to lay if she runs out of room in the top. But -- reversing gives us something to do, allowing us to feel like we are a real beekeeper. So go ahead and reverse. Or don't.

For swarm prevention, even better than reversing would be to take a couple of the empty frames and intersperse them within the actual brood nest. This is called "checkerboarding," and it genuinely addresses the swarming impulse by providing space in the brood nest. Simply adding supers or reversing doesn't add space in the place that matters so is generally ineffective wrt swarming. Checkerboarding is best done in warmer weather, though, when there are more nurse bees and the nights aren't so cold that the cluster will tighten and leave the edges of the nest uncovered, chilling & killing the brood.

Does this help?

Randall




On 2/23/2017 3:26 PM, Shadi Cinpinski wrote:
Hello everyone,
I just got into our remaining hive. Some notes before I ask for suggestions:

- Saw plenty of drawn our comb (some capped honey in the top medium super). 
-Middle (deep super) is full of eggs, larva in various stages and nectar. 
-Good pollen overall. 
-few drone cells (nothing alarming)
-no supercedure cells
-Bottom deep super is essentially empty. There is drawn out comb with a few frames with larva, but it's like the bees' ghost town. They are all up in the middle deep super and working on the top medium.

My question is what should I do a super reversal (swap middle with bottom) to help with possible swarming- the idea that the Queen will have more laying space as she works up. I read this can be done, but in 2-3 weeks I will need to reverse them back. 

After the wax moths attacking and decimating one of my hives last summer, I am concerned with leaving too much empty space and appreciate this group's input. 

Kind regards,
Shadi

--
Shadi Cinpinski,
704-589-0992


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