They need two fairly full boxes of honey to survive a bad winter here. They need to work fast if they are going to make it. They quit pulling comb in the summer. I realize winters are easier elsewhere but the rules are still the same two boxes for them and any extra supers are for the beekeeper.
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@clarkinks I think the others (and me too) were recommending one box for the present time on that small colony. They need to keep the brood chamber at 90F or so for the brood to grow, and with so few bees that could be a strain with the extra volume of a second empty hive box right now.
You’re right that eventually they will need that second box full of stores for the winter. But for now making life a bit easier for them is the goal.
Of course, removing one of the hive boxes assumes that there is one which is totally empty and can be removed. If the bees have settled onto frames of both boxes, then its’ probably not worth the chaos you’d create trying to remove one. However there are other things one can do to help the small cluster of bees along. Feeding and reducing the entrance as previously mentioned. Also if it is still getting cold there, a wrap of some sort would help them with heat retention (but could pose issues when it gets warm/hot).
Steve,
Yes I never said that. I didn’t realize anyone misunderstood thanks for bringing it up . I was not saying to use another box on that weak hive. I was saying order the boxes and ship and build them now. Swarms etc. will come up to. I would put my supers together to since I have had queens make 10 gallons of honey their first year. The bees that made 10 gallons of honey their first year came from calvert apiaries in Alabama years ago. I have 60 extra boxes now.
I added a box on top thinking they might be getting ready to swarm. If it became clear that they would swarm. I planned to pull the top box and make a split, not that I want to with a very young package.
This morning in better light I looked at the frame. It looks more like a queen cup, not a queen cell in the process of being capped. I’m leaning toward leaving the bees alone for a couple of weeks and see what they do.
That sounds like pretty good news, Chris.
A 3 week old hive isn’t likely to swarm.
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Show me the HONEY! I’m a willing customer!
Opps. sorry for the misunderstanding…
OK, since so many of you agreed with Muddy I did it…my weak hive now consists of just a single box! (along with stand and top of course). One thing that kind of surprised me was that there were a lot of dead been on the very bottom (sitting on the screen part of the stand). I don’t mean huge numbers- maybe like 30 bees. I understand that bees can die and I think most of these were dumped in there from my original package when I dumped all those in there. But what surprised me is that I have read that bees are good about policing their house and even remove their dead. Is that not true? If it is, are the dead bees just there because the hive is so small it is overwhelmed, or is something worse going on?
You guys better be right about me going to one box! haha. It just looked funny and I’d never seen a single box bee hive- but obviously I trusted you all. Thanks
The small amount of bees probably can’t preform all of the normal hive operations and are focusing on those most important for survival.
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Kevin, For 20 yrs of semi commercial beekeeping I used single boxes with queen excluders. The queen lays wall to wall, the bees keep only the stores they really need in the brood chamber, and most of the honey is stored above the excluder w/o brood in the supers and in easy reach of the greedy beek.
The one bad thing about singles is keeping an eye on them so they don’t swarm, but that tendency is very reduced after June.
Running singles allowed me to average 120-160# on an average year and get 40-60# honey per colony when others had none. You need to run doubles for a few years so you can get a read on your bees because swarming is a real difficult issue with singles
Thanks phil. That is both interesting and reassuring. I would be crushed if my good hive swarmed away, but my weak one wouldn’t hurt too bad.
When you said you used single boxes with queen excluders, you lost me a little. I thought the whole point in the queen excluder was to keep the queen in the lower boxes but let the rest of the girls move up and store honey in higher boxes. If you only had 1 box, why would you need the excluder? I left mine at top of my single box today but it seemed useless since there is no where for a queen (or workers for that matter) to go since the top sits on the queen excluder.
Mybe you were saying that you used 2 brooder boxes, then an excluder, then a single box? If so, I’m now wondering if that is what everyone was saying I should do???
TO be clear, in trying to follow everyone’s sugestion, what I have done is just taken my “stand” that has the opening and a screen in the bottom, and I set a single box on top of it, then put queen excluder and weed and plastic top. Is that what everyone wanted me to do, or did you want me to leave 2 brooder boxes, then queen excluder, THEN ONE BOX?
Worried
No worries, one deep brood chamber, excluder, honey supers as needed, lid.
Hey Folks…time for another beginner’s question. When I pull a frame out and look at it, I see lots of uncapped cells that seem to be filled with some kind of clear liquid. Its a little strange that the liquid doesn’t pour out since the cells are sideways and don’t seem to be capped and the clear liquid looks like it is just sitting there.
But my main question is " What is that stuff? Is it honey? Again, it looks crystal clear. Is it just the sugar water that I’m feeding my bees? If so, when I harvest at some point, won’t this stuff water down/dilute my honey? Or do I just not harvest it?
What’s going on here?
Thanks,
Uneducated new beekeeper
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Probably suger water, they don’t cap a cell until the moisture content is low enough to keep it from fermenting. That is kind of how you make meed, you add water to honey so it can ferment. The bees fan air through the hive to help remove water from the nectar, or suger water, they have stored in the cells. They will also store pollen in cells. It will look like a solid and be varying colors depending on what they are collecting at the time. You can watch bees returning to the hive that will have balls of pollen on their back legs. They will leave this in one of the cells and go get more.
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You won’t be or shouldn’t be harvesting honey from your brood chambers so no need to worry about the sugar water in there. When you do put your honey supers on you make sure you discontinue feeding sugar water as it would not be acceptable to mix the two if you are expecting pure honey.
Well, my friends, I thank you for all your help and I now have 2 more questions!!! Sorry…hopefully this thread will help others.
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When I pull the one frame out of my weak hive that has bees on it, I usually see one GIANT bee. But its not the queen. I had my queen marked and I can usually find her on the same frame, so they one I’m talking about is NOT the queen. But he is actually bigger than even she is. This guy is just huge. I’m 90% sure he is a honey bee, but he is so big and a little darker to the point I could almost be convinced that he is another species- similar to a bumble bee which he looks a little bit like. I’m using the pronoun “he” because I’ve seen videos where the narrator says “there goes one of the few male bees” and they show a fat bee going in the door. But mine is bigger than the ones I’ve seen on video.
Is this probably a male? If so, what is his purpose and where is there only 1 of them? Is there any chance this is another queen? Doesn’t look like it but I have to ask. -
I’ve noticed that most people use deeper boxes for brooder boxes. Even here most people talk about the “larger” brooder boxes" But my “beginners kit” came with 2 hives that are 4 boxes tall each, but all 4 boxes are the same size…I think they are all 4 what you call a “super”. Is that a problem? Is it a big deal to just have 4 same sized boxes on a stack instead of 2 deep brooders and then 2 supers?
As always, thank-you all.
1: DRONE male bee, mating.
2: MEDIUMS can be used for both brood and honey. Easier to lift as well as having same equipment to make life easier. Same boxes and frames keeps simple and saves your back. I personally use large hive boxes for brood rearing and mediums for honey.
There are a lot of good books and videos showing and talking about the drone bee as well as beekeeping in general.
Good Luck
Remember that the bees in there were shaken into the original delivery box. Drones fall in along with workers.
I use all 8 frame medium boxes because of my size. Ten frame deeps would be overly heavy for me to handle when full. It’s okay that your brood boxes are mediums.
AS always, thanks for the lessons. I’ve done a good deal of reading and video watching but still either forget or haven’t seen some of my questions addressed. @Chikn was kind enough to send me a very good little book.
The way Muddy talked about the male drone bee sounded he may have sort of got dumped in on accident. If that is the case, should I remove and/or destroy him?
THanks
