Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Aroc on July 16, 2017, 05:48:32 pm
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One of my hives has two deeps. I put the second deep on when the first deep was almost full. The bees refuse to move up to the second brood box. They have filled it almost full with syrup/nectar. A lot of it is beginning to get capped. My question is should I use this as a honey box now? Should I just put a another brood box in between the two. At this point up here I am starting to think about winter stores.
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Apparently they don't need the second box for brood. Not all bees use more than one box for brood. I assume that you will overwinter in two deeps. If so then they are well on there way to filling them and being ready for winter. If you have a flow going and they need more room I would add a honey super on top. This time of the year I start thinking of where I want the bees to be going into winter(how many need more boxes and how many have extra boxes). I don't worry so much where the brood is as long as there is plenty of bees.
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I did put a super on a couple of weeks ago but they've barely touched that.
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I did put a super on a couple of weeks ago but they've barely touched that.
..what @cao said.. in that it is a numbers game for the colony, strong compact colonies
winter best, regardless of ambient conditions.
So it is a choice of maintainance in arriving at your fall end with max stores, max bees
and minimal "free space".
Cheers.
Bill
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What is left to come in MT? Tough for me to say. I can say that if the bees are using any box for honey storage then it is a super and not a brood box but that doesn't mean it won't change unless you put a QE on. You are working with two different size boxes (I assume) so in that first year you have to make the bees transition from one size to another. The sooner you do it the better. I think adding the super is the right choice but you have to give them incentive to use it.
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Montana doesn't have much of a dearth. At least in this part of the state. There's always something blooming from fruit trees in the spring, clover and alfalfa in the summer and weeds like knapweed in the fall.
Since this is a split I did earlier in the year I think I will just continue to feed.