Advice Please!

[PhilK]

Hey all, I posted this over in general beekeeping, but thought I'd try here too in case some Aussie beeks are awake!

About 4 weeks ago we placed supers on our two hives and then we were away for holidays etc. Today my mate and I opened the hives for the first time since then to see how they are going.

Hive B's super was not quite full, but they're putting a good effort in. Hive A is going absolutely gang busters and will need to be harvested soon (our first harvest! So many questions to ask about that too...)

My question pertains to some worrying happenings we noticed in the brood boxes of both hives (Hive A much worse than Hive B). I assume it is a space issue, but hanging off the bottom bars of many frames were large sections of comb with brood and/or honey.. Some were connected to the floor of the hive so when we picked them up it was quite a mess. Some of the honey comb we sliced off and put into a box, but I wasn't sure what to do with the brood combs hanging there?

I assume it is not good to have this comb hanging off the bottom bars like that, so my question is what do we do with the comb that is already there? Slice it off? Leave it? And how do we prevent this issue from happening? Do we need to give them a second brood box? Split a hive into two hives?

Confused! This beekeeping stuff is fun but there is a lot to learn! Felt like a bit of a rookie today!

[Culley]

Hi Phil,

Here are my thoughts.

I see you are in Brisbane. My hives are in Northern NSW. At the moment they have more than one box of brood. I'm not using queen excluders, and I make sure there's always enough space for more brood through Spring-Autumn.

My hives are putting away honey at the moment too. If there's not enough good comb ready in the hive for honey and nectar the bees can put it in the brood combs too.

What size boxes are your hives? What kind of bottom boards? I wonder if the gap at the bottom, between the frames and the floor, could be a bit big? Either way, it sounds like they need more room for brood comb.

It would be really cool if you could take a photo of what you found.

[PhilK]

Thanks for the reply!

So you have two brood boxes, then a super? Do you reduce that when winter rolls around?

They are a standard 10 frame deep brood box and the same super. The bottom board and the brood box are fused together (we bought them like that). We have an excluder between the bottom box and super... I didn't get a photo but it's literally just an inch or so of extra comb with brood hanging from the bottom bars, and stuck to the bottom board in places.

Hive A is pretty well full in the super, so we gave them some more or less empty frames from Hive B to tide them over. We don't have any spare hive equipment so we'd need to buy it - we didn't expect them to take off so quickly!

So your suggestion would be to give them an extra brood box below the excluder? Will they need an extra super too if they're filling up the brood?

[max2]

Take honey off and leave the brood.
I work with one Full Depth Super as a brood box  - Queen excluder - honey supper. I have done this for yonks and it works for me.
At the moment we are taking honey off every 2 to 21/2 weeks. Give them space

[Culley]

Phil,

I'm not using excluders so I can't really give you advice. I'm still experimenting with size over winter, but I'm finding that 2-3 deep boxes is working well through the winter here.

I think if I was using the excluder I'd put another honey super on above the excluder, and if the brood box is getting honey in it, I'd move any honey frames up from the brood box.

But as you don't have any more boxes, I'd agree with Max - take some honey off.

P.S. I should let you know I have only been managing our bees about 5-6 years. Others have a lot more experience.

[PhilK]

So a honey harvest will help? How will that fix the full brood box? Will it just give them something else to focus on?

We are buying more gear to have on hand - never realised how fast they grow!

I don't really understand how to do hives without queen excluders, but that is a discussion for another day!

[Honeycomb king]

G day Phil.  Just a question why are you using queen excluders.  From what I read of your post your new to this and gaining experience. I sell a lot of neucs and often come across newbie s with their first hive that have been sold a queen excluder when purchasing all the other gear from beekeeping suppliers.  In my view The excluder is a tool to be used by a beekeeper as required, with careful consideration of the outcome and the desired effect etc.  Would like to know what is your hopeful outcome is.
Thanks, sorry if this question seems odd it's just something I see a lot and have wandered.

[PhilK]

G day Phil.  Just a question why are you using queen excluders.  From what I read of your post your new to this and gaining experience. I sell a lot of neucs and often come across newbie s with their first hive that have been sold a queen excluder when purchasing all the other gear from beekeeping suppliers.  In my view The excluder is a tool to be used by a beekeeper as required, with careful consideration of the outcome and the desired effect etc.  Would like to know what is your hopeful outcome is.
Thanks, sorry if this question seems odd it's just something I see a lot and have wandered.

Hey, no worries for the question. I am using a queen excluder because pretty much every resource and book I have read says a queen excluder goes on top of the brood box to stop the queen laying in the super. As I understand it, you don't want brood in amongst your honey, so this makes sense to me. Seeing as my queen is laying along the bottom edge of all her frames, I'm fairly sure if I didn't have an excluder she would go up and make my honey super a brood box. It is working very well so far (supers full of honey) so I haven't considered trying without one, but I will do more research and do that down the track maybe.

[PhilK]

Thanks for all the replies guys, but still not sure what to actually do with all the combs being built on the bottom of the frames? I assume they should be removed, because they're not meant to be there and will probably only get worse the longer I leave them, but they have brood so I do feel a bit bad!

[Culley]

You could cut them out and put them above the excluder until the brood hatches out.

[PhilK]

So yesterday we extracted, and for the first time I had a frame from the super and a frame from the brood box side by side. I think I found the problem - it looks like the frames from the brood box are shallower than the frames from the super! We ordered 10 deeps with our brood box, and 10 deeps with our super... but I assume they got mixed up and we got given mediums! They should be the same in both super and brood box if we are using 2 deep bodies right?

How do I remedy this? I assume they need to be replaced with deeps but at the moment they are full of brood, so how do I change them over?

Cheers!

[Honeycomb king]

What depth are your frames, in mm both sizes. And what are your boxes?
Rotate the shallows out.that is move any honey frames  in the brood box up , maybe pollen frame as well. That is assuming all frames are filled out, if not move those  up first. Only two at a time then once they are built out move another few.
Do you have a beekeeping club or mentor around that could help.