tudor 1551 Posted January 31, 2015 My understanding is the the only bee who needs to be in the bottom box is the queen - along with stores and space. The rest and the eggs will all hatch and the cells used for honey as time goes by - if your "boss" is happy with this approach. Just to say that in the one box size and no qe system, which I am using, the tide of brood early on is replaced by the tide of honey, and the hive sorts itself out with brood in the bottom boxes and brood free honey in the top 3-4 3/4 boxes. And a check for brood and capping proportion when taking supers off. But really for hobby beekeepers ? Or sideliners ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
api mania 205 Posted January 31, 2015 My understanding is the the only bee who needs to be in the bottom box is the queen - along with stores and space. The rest and the eggs will all hatch and the cells used for honey as time goes by - if your "boss" is happy with this approach. Just to say that in the one box size and no qe system, which I am using, the tide of brood early on is replaced by the tide of honey, and the hive sorts itself out with brood in the bottom boxes and brood free honey in the top 3-4 3/4 boxes. And a check for brood and capping proportion when taking supers off. But really for hobby beekeepers ? Or sideliners ? Totally right and not just hobbyist. This is a very commercial approach. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M4tt 4929 Posted January 31, 2015 This sounds like a good idea, in all our double brood hives the upper brood boxes are just chocker full of honey, spoilt by a bit of brood. The exact mechanics of reducing a double back to a single (for a newbie like me) would be sorting down to the bottom all the eggs and young brood, (and queen of course) adequete stores of pollen and honey down the bottom also, and hopefully there would only be left over mature brood left in the top box to hatch when you move the excluder down one box? I do exactly that, but in August when there is minimal brood so it all fits in the middle of the bottom box, with the queen. Once the bottom box has plenty of brood, I move two frames at a time up to the centre of the second box, which then hatch and get back filled with honey Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
