Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?  (Read 1643 times)

Offline rockink

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 100
  • Gender: Male
How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« on: August 14, 2018, 10:26:33 pm »
How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?

All of my hives are 1 deep and 1 medium. The only reason the have the mediums is because when these hives were created from splits the host hives were all medium's.

All of the deep boxes don't have much in the way of resources but I would prefer all of my hives to be just 1 or 2 deep.

Thanks

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


Offline beepro

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 596
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2018, 10:49:37 pm »
With resources you can feed them syrup once they are in the correct box arrangement.  For this to work you have to combine all the deepa together and all the mediums together.  Each in their individual hive arrangement.   Then feed them to weight so that the deep and mediums will be fill up with resources for the winter.

To combine the bees either in the deep or mediums, you have to use the newspaper combine method.  You tube has good vids on the how to....

On a piece of paper, draw out a plan with arrows on how to move the bees and boxes so that you won't get lost.  This will be more clear, label the box on paper, if you know which box has the most resources that you can move to distribute it out among the hives.   Not hard to do just more planning on paper first.

Offline rockink

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 100
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2018, 11:01:52 pm »
That was really confusing for me. Maybe i didn't explain it right.

How do i consolidate a hive that has 1 deep and 1 medium box to end up with just 1 deep?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


Offline beepro

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 596
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2018, 11:12:25 pm »
Let's say you have broods in the medium.  Then you cannot combine it your way because the equipment, the frames and boxes are not
compatible, deep + mediums.    You can if you are willing to cut out all the medium comb + broods to graft them using rubber
bands onto the deep frames.   Then you can use the deep boxes to house them all in.   You will be left with all the medium hollow out
frames though.

The deep frames where you rubber band the comb + broods on will also have the hole without comb in the bottom of the frames.  Comes Spring time the
bees will fill up these gaps with drone comb. 

Offline rockink

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 100
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2018, 11:35:09 pm »
Since them medium is where most of the bees/brood/resources are, if I put that on the bottom will the bees naturally move up?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


Offline BeeMaster2

  • Administrator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 13494
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2018, 12:02:16 am »
I recommend that you wait until spring to move them. Then during the flow when they put brood in the deep box and with the queen in that box, you can move the medium box up above a super. As the brood hatch out, they will fill it with honey.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline Acebird

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 8110
  • Gender: Male
  • Just do it
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2018, 08:19:46 am »
All of the deep boxes don't have much in the way of resources but I would prefer all of my hives to be just 1 or 2 deep.
Sometimes the bees don't do what we want.  If you try to force them to overwinter the way you want they could be dead in spring.
If you went through a whole season and all you ended up with is a deep and a medium (and not much in the deep)  I would say the colony is at risk.  There would only be two choices in my mind, 1 leave it alone or 2 combine to make it stronger.
Brian Cardinal
Just do it

Offline DeepCreek

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 32
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2018, 10:52:14 am »
I run single deeps and medium honey supers.  As I extract, or when the dearth hits, the medium honey supers are removed one by one.  Usually in August I'm down to a couple of mediums.  Occasionally the queen gets into the mediums and lays eggs.  If I see eggs in the mediums I make sure the queen is in the deep (brood box), put on a queen excluder between the deep and how ever mediums I still have on.  Once the brood hatches from the mediums they come off.  Simple

Offline beepro

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 596
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2018, 09:00:32 pm »
"Since them medium is where most of the bees/brood/resources are, if I put that on the bottom will the bees naturally move up?"

They will if you forced them to using a QE.  By themselves I don't think so.  In many regions, the bees already arranged their brood nest for this winter. The hive population must support so I assume that you have plenty of bees and not just a 2 framers.   I do it all the time here and feed heavily during the summer dearth.   Here is how I would do it.
Step: 1) Put the medium over the deep.  Make sure the deep is full of drawn comb frames.   Then move the 2 outer nectar/pollen frames from the
medium down to the deep.  2) In between the 2 nectar/pollen frames is where you will put in a deep drawn comb frame.  This is where you will place the queen on.  Once this deep frame is full of eggs, move another deep frame over in between them and so on.   3) Put a QE over the deep box to prevent the queen from moving up once everything is put together.

The 2 nectar/pollen frames you can remove them from the deep in the Spring and replace the slot with deep frames. The bees need these resources to overwinter in.  Once all the bees emerged from the medium frames, you can remove them for safe storage.   If your area is cold and wet during the winter I would recommend leaving the medium on and  feeding them to weight for this winter. 


Offline TheHoneyPump

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1389
  • Work Hard. Play Harder.
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #9 on: August 17, 2018, 01:27:18 am »
sawdstmaker and deepcreek have it covered.

It is easy to move them to where you want them to be.  However, to make the move you really need to consider the time of year and how many weeks you've got in your area for them to re-establish the nest in the new box and be able to fill it.  They will need a month.  If there is not enough time in your area, then do not move anything.  Wait until spring - early summer and make the moves then.

If I understand correctly, you have the deep on the bottom and medium on top.  And the bees are hanging out in the medium.  Dead simple.  Go into the hive.  Physically pick up the queen.  Place her on the top bar of a frame in the bottom box, deep.  Once she has walked down, put a queen excluder on the deep then put the medium back on.  Come back in 3 to 4 weeks; all brood will have emerged out of the medium and there will be a new full brood nest in the bottom deep.  Simply remove the medium set it aside away from the bottom deep and remove the QE.  Check through the bees in the medium.  There is a slight risk that they have raised queen cells and virgins in the upper box.  Once you are sure their is neither, shake all the bees from the medium onto the top bars of the bottom deep.  Put the cover on and walk away.  The medium may be full of honey.  However they will have also filled the bottom deep below the excluder with what they and the queen need down there.

The queen excluder is a great tool for manipulating queens to be in the box(es) that you want them to be.  Use it.  Left to her own devices the queen will go wherever she darn well pleases - including right up the bottom of the top cover on a 5 story hive.  There are certain norms or commons about where she will usually be and where the bees will put resources, but do not count on that.  If you have a need for things to be a certain way for hive management, then use the tools that are available to do that.

Hope that helps!
« Last Edit: August 17, 2018, 01:40:36 am by TheHoneyPump »
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

Offline rockink

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 100
  • Gender: Male
Re: How do i get my bees to move brood boxes?
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2018, 11:04:25 am »
So Acebird really got me thinking about the overall strength of my colonies so i have just started open feeding. I built hive top feeder boxes for all my hives yesterday and the feeders should be here today.

I think based on what everyone is saying I think the smart thing to do is let them get as strong as possible and then change the brood boxes next season.

I have a few queen excluder so i will definitely put them to use next season.

Thanks everyone for the detailed responses.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

anything