Hi everyone, i am a new beekeeper and i made a mistake, while reading this you may be asking "why doesn't he have a mentour or a beekeeping club that can tell him" and that is because i live in a remote town in Western Australia where there is no mentours or beekeeping clubs. so I appreciate the help😀
Update: I use 3, 8 frame deeps only, the configuration is brood box, brood box, queen excluder, honey super, lid
This is a two part question:
Part 1:
I was informed by the shop that i bought my beehive boxes and equipment from that i should have two brood boxes and one super due to the low flower 'density' of where i live. I now have a hive that i started from a swarm in October, they have filled out the first and second brood box and they are currently starting on the third. The problem is that i have a fella that has been beekeeping bees here for 4 years, he has one brood box and two supers, and that also appears to be the standard practice of many beekeepers in the rest of Australia as seen on the internet. Is there a chance that the guy in the beekeeping shop may have recommended incorrectly or (and most likely) that i miss understood what he said and he actually meant 1 brood box and two supers, also what is the difference between one brood box and supers and 2 brood boxes and a super, can a hive still be managed with two brood boxes, can i still get honey.
Part 2
So if i did in fact need one brood box and supers then i have made a mistake, i am happy to admit it, but i need to fix the problem, is there now a way that i can convert my 2 brood box and 1 super into 1 brood box and 2 supers.
This is what i have come up with:
-Inspect every frame carefully for the queen in the second brood box, if she is not there than she is in the first brood box, so quickly reposition the queen excluder from under the third box to underneath the second brood box, then cut out any drone brood (because they wouldn't be able to get their fat asses through and will die up there). Once the queen is in the first brood box, the brood that was in the second brood box will emerge and then it will be filled with honey, and i can add the third box if there is enough time in the session
or
-Take the now super off of the hive and force the bees to collect enough necter to fill that whole second brood box up with nectar, this will force the queen to only lay in the first brood box. When this occurs i then put the queen excluder under the second brood box to make it the first super and then add on the third box if there is enought time in the session.