is it time to super up or just make splits?
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- Опубликовано: 5 май 2024
- The bees are building up well and hopefully the weather is going to turn into their favour over the next week. I’ve been thinking about running without a queen excluder just to see how different it might be. Will it encourage the bees to not swarm, but don’t know but I’m willing to give it a go and find out.
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We overwintered in two deep brood boxes (the lower one was almost full of honey so you can say we nadired a deep super box) and the queen descended in spring against any odds to lay eggs so till last week we had a double deep BB which we split and put the boxes just next to each other. The queen less box had a frame of drone box which we left thinking we didnt want to interfere more. Now the bees are kicking the drone larvae out. I suppose they are thinking we need all the honey here to get a new queen and we don't want drones.. I can see some of the nursing bees starting to fly and get to the new hive with no issue about the old hive being just next door. Now fingers crossed we will have a queen.
We didn't put a queen excluder on both the BB so one has a queen and no QE and a super on with bees already all over the super frames and another BB queenless with eggs and lots of food (new honey) and super above albeit still not drawn
If queen excluder is good quality I mean the type with wires it can be used without amy hesitation. I noticed if queen lays in super box and later you put excluder on, after brood hatches beere are storing rather pollen there instead of honey.
That was a great video, thanks for no silly music, graphics, etc, just your soothing voice birdsong and bees. That first Queen is a real beauty, expect you are looking forward to seeing what her offspring will be like! Personally I always use an excluder, but try to have a few drawn frames above just to encourage the bees up.
Thanks Peter, she is coming on well. Northumberland Honey is where I got her from
nice video. i'm a single brood box with a queen erxcluder beekeeper, just because its easier to go through them , but they are more likely to swarm with less space. I have about 50 hives so cutting down time on each inspection really adds up.
Think I might start moving to Langstrof next year some of these Buckfast colonies are huge, I personally think national is to small for them
Thanks for the comparison
00:08:00 excluder
00:10:35 no ecluder
QEs are a tool for bee farmers. If you are a commercial beekeeper you can't afford the time going through supers looking for QCs but I'm a hobbyist. I let them do their thing and maybe it reduces swarming and inspections take 20+mins/hive. I use QEs in late summer/autumn just to get the hives back to overwinter on brood and a half Nationals. Before then the brood can extend 2-3 supers up the middle. I'll shuffle frames to take honey off putting them above a clearer board. Also super frames which have had brood are more susceptible to wax moth. ?
Great comment, thank you 🙏🏻
Great video, just straight forward info.
Thank you 🙏🏻
I see you use Abelo supers on a wooden brood box. Do the poly and wooden parts work and fit with each other ok, and what sort of queen excluder will fit for either poly, wooden or a mix of boxes? I've currently got wooden 12x14 but considering trying a poly hive. Cheers
I find that they go together no problem just make sure the frames are parallel above and below each other so they don’t build brace comb if that makes sense. I would normally use any queen excluder and I’ve never had an issue but I only have one poly brood box. The only thing that I find doesn’t work the best Is the roof onto the wooden boxes and crown boards that’s why in the video I’m using the Abelo crown board as it has a rebate to accept the roof and stops it moving around.
Hope this makes sense, I’m terrible at explaining in writing.
Great video Andy
As yet I've not used a queen excluder, as I only harvest a few frames of honey from the edge of the hive each year, but I will certainly be giving one a try as soon as my hive has expanded a bit more as I am looking to fill another two hive's asap👍👍👍
Thanks Purdey, I’ve never tried it intentionally so it will be interesting for me how far up she will go. I’ve be selling Spring nucs when they are ready in June if your interested I’m only doing them locally so small numbers to start of with, all the information is on our website if you want to know more.
That queen is a monster!
Which one me the wasp on the bee? 😆
Yes I’ve tried a super with no QE. By accident; I forgot the QE when reassembling the hive. And guess what? She laid it up. Quelle surprise. As an “experiment” this really has no value because science is supposed to tell us what we DON’T know.
I’ll still like to try it for myself though see how far up she we go. No harm trying?
@@pureyorkshirehoney none! Just bear in mind you’ll need to strain out any pupae when it comes time to extract unless you wait for everything to hatch out and THEN place a QE back on the brood box!
@@garethdesborough7960 What will happen to brood which will hatch? Will they look for a nearest hive?
@@garethdesborough7960I wouldn't wait that long as the queen will keep laying up there. Far better to ensure she's in the bottom box when you want to reclaim the super, and put the qe on then. That way the brood will emerge and eventually move back downstairs leaving the super ready for nectar