Wondering what other people do in our situation. We have a flow hive with one brood box and the flow super on top. The hive is very full and we are harvesting honey every few weeks (leaving min. 3 frames of honey in th flow at any time)
Bees are bearding everyday as it is hot at the moment. Should we add another brood box or should we perform a split? Main concern preventing swarming.
Location - Adelaide, South Aus
Hi & welcome to the forum. I prefer to split a hive before adding another brood box. I only do that with a population explosion, so as to prevent swarming.
I think first of all you need to assess the population status, as well as seeing if there is anything that can be changed in order to prevent, or reduce the bearding.
To reduce bearding you could shade the hive & keep it as cool as possible on the outside. The bees will do the rest on the inside, provided they have access to water. Also I would eliminate any extra ventilation. The entrance alone is all that’s needed.
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Perfect advice. Thank you. I’ll do an inspection of the current setup and take it from there.
Thanks