Double Brood

[POPZ]

Great to see a few other folk having a bit of a problem with irate ladies!!

I want to try one of my colonies on double brood, having been single brood so far. I have a very strong colony that I split several weeks ago. The split is going great guns and not taking much syrup and the parent colony is very strong now.

Is this the right time to introduce a second brood box and if so, I presume it would be the stronger parent colony to undergo this treatment??

Otherwise all looking good - as long as they don't decide to have a go at swarming.

[Jimbo]

Hi Popz,

When you run a lot of colonies it is easier to spot the nippy ones, the good ones and the down right rubbish ones. Most beginners only have a few colonies and it is harder to make a judgement if you only have a few colonies to compare against.

About double brood. I tried it last year with one of my colonies. I followed Ian Craigs method. You can download it from the SBA web site. It is called my beekeeping year. He does not fill both boxes with frames but moves frames about. I think at this time of year he reduces back to 1 box so that he gets a honey crop. I found it a bit of a faff and I did not get much honey. The only advantage was the queen had lots of room and did not produce queen cells and did not try to swarm compare to 7 other colonies I had last year in single boxes. Last year was poor for honey so it was hard to judge if it would have been better.

Jimbo

[Calum]

Ahoy,
I keep all my 'industrious' colonies on 20 brood frames. As Jimbo points out the queen has more space to lay, and the pressure to swarm is lowered untill the hive is full of bees, but then it can be immense (have taken up to 4 frames of closed brood and 4 frames of bees out for making strong nucs, and they were building queen cells 2 weeks later.
These strong colonies are massive in a good season and can take up to 3kg a day in full swing.
If they have a couple of rainy days / weeks, they can eat their way through a kilo a day in feeding themselves and the massive amounts of brood. So it is a bit of a two edged sword.
Last 3 years I was getting 35kg per colony in a year. This year has been poor first too cold then too wet, now too hot & dry (34°C today)- only 10kg / hive so far, but 3 nucs per hive too.

[Jimbo]

Hi Calum,

One of the problems we have in Scotland is the weather. It can be more variable than European weather. This can have an effect on brood size. It is a bit hit or miss if you will fill double broods. Some of our members have Langstroths and don't do as well as a national size box due to that little bit extra in size. It would be great if we could get a bit more of this global warming. This week we have had a lot of rain and little foraging by the bees. About 200 miles to the south of us they have been having their hottest day this year.

Jimbo

[Calum]

Hi Calum,

One of the problems we have in Scotland is the weather. It can be more variable than European weather. This can have an effect on brood size. It is a bit hit or miss if you will fill double broods. Some of our members have Langstroths and don't do as well as a national size box due to that little bit extra in size. It would be great if we could get a bit more of this global warming. This week we have had a lot of rain and little foraging by the bees. About 200 miles to the south of us they have been having their hottest day this year.

Jimbo

Hi Jimbo,

I agree totally. As said, it is a two edged sword and I keep my bees in the south of Germany. In a good year great, in a poor year decreases the crop. Although I am not too worried, I prefer a few kilos less honey but a lovely big ball of bees covering ten frames in December.. Have to feed them more though - 16-18 kg instead of about 12kg, so keeping 10 frames of brood can well be more economical.

[POPZ]

Guys, thanks for your input. Guess on balance it sounds more sensible to stay single brood till I have more experience on local conditions and the ladies needs here.

Incidentally, although running only 2 full colonies, it is pretty obvious already which are the nippy as opposed to the gentle ones - very obvious!! So i guess the next challenge is learning to deal with this situation.

[gavin]

I'd have thought that with the stimulative feeding you were doing, double brood would be an option early in the season. Will you be trying pollen substitute patties again next year? Did the feeding give you an early build up this year?

Ahoy from me too!

G.

[POPZ]

Gavin!! Great to hear from you - hope all well up your way - or is it across, maybe even a tad south???

Yes, I had tremendous build up early on and will repeat again next spring, including trying double brood at that time. I did not get the patty feeding right and will have to think more on that one. BUT, despite watching the ladies very closely I lost the prime swarm whilst away in Colonsay. No idea how that happened. However I did manage to get a couple of nucs off the remainder which are progressing very nicely and of course the parent colony is looking a wee bit faint at the moment.

Colonsay lot are just grand, although the split I made is not progressing as much as I would like.

How are yours looking. What news regarding AFB and EFB?

[gavin]

Hi Richard

Across my way does it for me!

We all lose swarms sometimes (even me!). It is a good reminder to be looking *really* carefully for queen cells.

Andrew called the other night to discuss some matters dear to his heart. I have a lot of splits too, trying to fill 8 or 9 boxes from not enough bees - after only one coming through the winter. I reckon that I'll be going through a lot of sugar before the winter comes.

The word from the inspectorate is that there are a lot fewer cases of AFB and EFB this year. I don't suppose that we'll know for sure until later in the season, but it sounds relatively good so far. For one thing the weather has been good, but is going downhill now which might make EFB at least recur here and there.

best wishes

Gavin

[Calum]

Hi Gavin,
alot of sugar? But you feed liquid right?
ttfn
Calum