I like the idea of nadiring, but then opening the brood nest to prevent swarming defeats the purpose of nadiring.
Any ideas or thoughts?
Thoughts ? Yes - but I'm not sure anyone here would want to hear them ...
Emile Warre was intent upon achieving two things: the first was to design a beehive which was both efficient and cheap to build (and thus affordable) for the rural French - this I think he achieved.
The second was to emulate, as far as possible, conditions which closely mirrored those of the tree cavity - hence his design resembles a tall narrow chimney. In this regard, I think his structural design basically works (except for his 'quilt' idea) but his procedural methods are somewhat dubious.
Tree trunks are not widely known for lifting themselves bodily off the ground in order to have a new section added to their middle ... so how then does the natural nest's comb differ from that of the expandable (multi-box) hive ? Quite simply, they are long contiguous combs. However, one relatively recent trend within beekeeping circles has become the complete reverse of this: to use multiple shallow brood boxes instead. Even Warre enthusiasts persist with 'nadiring' extra brood boxes.
The reason Warre gives for nadiring is straightforward enough: having over-wintered within a minimum number of boxes, the time then comes for colony expansion - but - should a residual band of honey remain at the top of the brood box combs, then the queen will refuse to cross over that honey and move up into an upper box. As there is no longer a box of combs below the currently occupied box, the colony is thus trapped within a small space and will duly swarm in order to find somewhere larger. Warre's solution to this problem is to provide a box of combs below that currently occupied. (which then involves some dismantling and heavy lifting)
There are two possible solutions to this: the first is to remove the combs (IF you run frames within a Warre Hive) and scarify the capped honey cells before 'supering' a second brood box - the bees will then relocate those honey stores upwards, thus removing the obstruction to colony expansion.
For those with fixed combs, a simple solution would be to have the second brood box (the one which is nadired under the first) placed there permanently. During winter the bees will move up the stack, consuming honey as they go - then come spring they will begin moving down again, back-filling the old brood nest with honey as that nest progressively becomes vacated, with a new brood nest being formed underneath it - which is exactly what happens in a natural bee-nest.
With a narrow chimney-style hive it's unnecessary to minimise cavity size by the removal of additional brood boxes prior to the onset of winter, as the bees will move upwards away from the cold at the bottom - just as they've been doing for millennia.
For those without Warre hives, the equivalent of this would be to use much deeper combs than are currently in use - but no 'modern' beekeeper would ever want to hear about such an idea.
LJ
PS - I prevent swarming by the use of large volume hives with deep combs.
Topic: Anyone nadir instead of super? How do you prevent swarming? (Read 2944 times)