I was/am planning on staying with one brood box (as the local apiary does) but am wondering if it is a good idea to add a second brood box after having a flowsuper already installed?
The super has been on for about 4 days and the bees are crazily working it. I seem to have a huge population of bees and am asking this question as a backup plan if things happen to go south and I need to make this decision
Will the bees work both if the population and nectar flow lets them?
It seems pretty early in the honey flow and I think I will be able to harvest in a few weeks. does this mean I can add a brood box after they fill the flowsuper or will it be too late?
How successful is the local apiary that uses one brood box?
Instead of adding an extra brood box, you will be able to use that box, with an extra lid & base to take a nuc off as swarm control & let the nuc make a new queen. THEN you’ll have some backup.
I use single brood boxes. I get strong colonies with just one brood box. I successfully take nucs away from those strong colonies while at the same time, those colonies still produce lots of honey & don’t swarm. It’s a win, win, win & win situation. …
“Apparently 1 box is very successful in my area. Surprisingly”.
Don’t be surprised. When you think about it, even with an 8 frame brood box, if half of the frames were used wholly for raising worker bees, rounding it back to 6,000 bees per frame. That means that every 21 days a colony will produce 24,000 bees. That is nearly half of a colonies population in less than a month.
I was thinking more about over wintering. I was all ready to do 2 brood boxes due to researching my climate until I picked up my nuc. that’s when I learned they only did one box. I changed my mind and planned on only doing one box. Now I notice they are very strong and if I can get away with both a super and new brood box at once then why not.
Or maybe I should just wait until next spring. Lol…so many things to experiment with but again this is my very first hive and should stick to my guns.
I can’t strictly answer your question because I use double FD brood. But, we are all about the experimenting here, and if your colony is as strong as you say, I don’t think it will hurt it. However, you need to be prepared for them to stop storing so much nectar because they will be using a lot of it to build wax and draw comb. The question for you is… how much honey are you hoping for?
I was hoping to get one harvest. But at the rate they are going I think I could get 2 of them. The flow just started and should go until late August. I would be happy for them to spend time building a new box and then hopefully continue on the flowframes. Thanks for the questions. This is the best way to learn
I believe that in the colder parts of Aus., they remove the QX prior to winter. I never have to because my queens keep laying right through winter.
Adding an extra super is an added burden to a colony. Something will have to give initially. They will work on the new super as well as work on the flow super, but I guess the production into the flow super will slow down considerably.
The thing you need to consider is: are you giving them a box full of empty frames with starter strips, fresh foundation, drawn comb or a combination?
The best advice I think anyone can give you is to find out what is working for your local apiarist. Be a sponge, soak up every bit of information he/she is prepared to share with you.
A little story: A while back a forum poster picked up a nuc from a local supplier. The supplier gave him/her some advice. Then that person asked the forum if that advice was right or not. Chances are that that advice was right. If that local supplier had nucs for sale, he/she must be doing something right.
